Mad Love
by WandererBaron
Summary: Upset and heartbroken by the latest visit of Medi, Roll is now more determined than ever to win back Rockman. She obtains a strange chip that renews her resolve and obsession, but at what price is she willing to have Rockman all to herself? RockmanxMedi, one-sided RockmanxRoll with Yandere!Roll, minor NettoxMeiru and NettoxJasmine.
1. And So It Begins

**Just a head's up for anyone that is actually paying attention to my activities here that my interests jump around from one thing to another. The reason I'm making this story is because I was bored enough to watch reruns of Stream and a bit of Beast/+ and the idea for this story came behind my fascination over the RockmanxRollxMedi love triangle. I know this isn't as popular as it used to be over ten years ago, but better late than never, I suppose. Plus, I haven't found a fic like this yet, so this could potentially be the first of its kind.**

**Just another heads up, I'll be using the Japanese names of people, Navis, and places because it appeals to me more than English, but if you need translations of certain people or places, let me know and I can post them next chapter first thing.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Today was a peaceful day at Densan City. Everything was running smoothly for both the real world and the cyber world. There were no known threats like Darkloids running amuck or some underground organization seeking world domination and chaos at this time. Even school was out for the season, although there were a few weeks remaining until the summer time ended and school started up again.

Anyway, it was really fortunate as a certain young boy with spiky brown hair held up with his notable blue headband had no intention of doing anything intense this day. He was known as Hikari Netto, a Net Savior.

"Ah, this is a really beautiful day, isn't it, Rockman?" Netto remarked, walking down a sidewalk in Akihara Town into the direction of Densan Town.

"It is, Netto-kun," Rockman replied, his tiny projected form sitting on his Operator's shoulder. "Any plans for today?"

"Mmm, not really. I figured something might come to me if I made the first stop into an arcade."

"I know how much you love video games and all, but it won't do you any good playing them all day, especially on a sunny day like this," Rockman reasoned.

"You have a point," Netto sighed.

As he passed an intersection and crossed the street, he heard a cheery voice call out his name.

"Netto!"

Sure enough as he reached the corner, the one who called out his name barely caught up to him before the car that was waiting for the pedestrians to cross over moved on forward and drove away. Rockman saw who was coming and returned to the cyber world, knowing who else was going to be nearby.

"Meiru-chan, what brings you here?" Netto asked his red-haired childhood friend.

"I was going to ask you that," Meiru answered, appearing rather cheerful. "I guessing there are no new assignments or missions?"

"Nope. Why?"

"Well, I was wondering if—."

"Netto!" a higher-pitched, rather foreign-accented voice exclaimed from behind the young Net Savior.

"Eh?!"

"Whoa, Jasmine too?" Netto commented. "This can't be coincidental."

Indeed, the hyper young girl from Choina slowly jogged over to where they stood and waved to the brunette boy, much to Meiru's minor irritation. Several times now has Jasmine walked in and interrupted her moment with Netto. The red-haired girl thought she was finally going to get Netto's attention all to herself this gorgeous day, until another thought emerged in her head that surprised her.

"Wait, if Jasmine's here, then that means…" Meiru mumbled to herself.

* * *

_Cyber World_

"Rockman, it's so great to see you again!" Medi greeted, having snuck up and snagged the blue bomber Navi's right arm into her own arms. "I missed you."

"Hi, Medi, I missed you too," Rockman greeted, chuckling warmly as the nurse Navi snuggled with his arm. "What brings you here to these parts?"

"Jasmine has plenty of free time now since there're no pressing matters so far in Choina so she wanted to visit Netto, though I can't say I know why," Medi replied, smiling. "But that also means I can visit you too."

A third pink Navi wasn't too thrilled about this sudden inclusion.

"Excuse me!" said pink Navi demanded. "But Rockman and I have plans to go out today with _no one else_!"

"W-We did, Roll-chan?" Rockman inquired, completely lost by the direction she was going for.

"Baka!" Roll huffed while Medi smirked in triumph.

"By the sound of things, I'm afraid not even Rockman knows what you're talking about," Medi said, tugging the blue bomber Navi to follow her. "Besides, with your NetOps as neighbors, you two practically see each other every day. You should be more considerate and let others that don't get to share as much time with him as you do have their chance."

"Medi does have a point," Rockman mused.

"_You're not helping_!" Roll shouted, causing Rockman to cower from her sudden fiery rage.

Medi placed a protective arm around Rockman and led him in another direction, particularly away from the green-eyed, both figuratively and literally, pink Navi before sending back a stern glare.

"Some helpful advice: you're only making this worse for yourself the way you are now," Medi pointed out firmly before turning back to Rockman with a loving expression. "Let's go, Rockman. Show me more sights of New Net City, please."

"Mm, yeah," Rockman nodded meekly as the nurse Navi hooked her arm around his once again. Roll puffed her cheeks again in palpable jealousy and pretended to turn away in indifference. "Are you sure you don't want to include Roll-chan as well?"

"She needs time to cool down, don't worry," Medi reassured, subtly leaning closer to his face. "But Rock-kun…"

"Eh?" Rockman was surprised by the sudden honorific and the way it was affectionately delivered. Though only her back was seen by view, Roll's body had twitched for a moment when her auditory senses picked up Medi's new "term of endearment" for _her_ Rockman.

"We've known each other for a while now. Don't you think you'd be more comfortable calling me 'Medi-chan' instead?"

Rockman blinked a few times before returning his answer with a smile and nod while Roll's helmet antennae were noticeably twitching upward. Medi hugged the blue bomber Navi closer to her.

"If that's what you want, then it's fine by me, Medi-chan," Rockman replied.

That was the last straw.

"Fine… 'if that's what you want'… …Rock-kun," Roll repeated quietly as she looked down to her feet, her whole body trembling in heartbroken anguish. She managed to break out of her despair long enough to send a determined glare at the nurse Navi. "You may have won _this_ battle, but you have yet to win the war of love, Medi!"

Rockman and Medi barely heard what the pink Navi said before seeing her log out and presumably return to her PET. Rockman was concerned as he looked back to Medi, who merely shrugged and resumed a happy persona as to not dampen their moment together.

* * *

_Real World_

"Come on, Netto!" Jasmine beckoned eagerly, grabbing an arm of his with both hands. "There are so many things I want to try out while I'm visiting, like visiting some more sights we didn't get to see, find some more flowers, and maybe having a curry-eating contest too. I really enjoyed Dekao's curry the last time I was here."

"Whoa, really?" Netto asked, amazed by her energy and her plans for the day. "It's a good thing I had a light breakfast then."

"Great! Let's go then!"

Netto was about to step forward before realizing something, or rather someone, being left behind. He had Jasmine wait in place for a moment as he looked back to where Meiru was.

"Oi, Meiru-chan, did you want to join us?"

"Huh? Oh, no, I'm fine," Meiru replied with a fake smile. "You two go on ahead. I've got back up plans for today anyway."

Netto had a badgering feeling that something was wrong with his red-haired childhood friend, but at the same time, he didn't want to ruin Jasmine's time in Densan City since she did take the time to fly from Choina to get to Japan. He figured by the end of the day that he would come up with something to make it up to Meiru.

"Well, if you say so," Netto replied before allowing Jasmine to take the lead once more.

"Yay!" Jasmine cheered, grabbing the brunette Net Savior by the hand. "And since I'm visiting you now, it'll be yours and Rockman's turn to visit me and Medi in Choina in the near future. I'll make you all the baozi you can eat!"

The dark-haired girl raised her closed bamboo umbrella up as though she was leading a parade and marched onward to Densen Town with Netto on tow.

_I wonder how Enzan is able to handle both Yaito and Anetta,_ Netto thought curiously as he followed along.

Unbeknownst to him, the truth was that Enzan couldn't, no matter how cool he tried to play it off…

"Baka…" Meiru muttered sadly as she watched Netto and Jasmine walk off into the distance.

Normally, she wouldn't have given up the way she did, but at the same time, it was admittedly difficult to be upset towards someone as sweet as Jasmine, even though they had a few "moments" of conflict in the past. Meiru knew she couldn't force Netto to be with her regardless of how many slaps or tantrums she threw, especially since she didn't even have anything planned for both her and him in addition to not making herself look bad in public. She just wanted to spend more time with him now that he had less Net Savior missions to follow up on and complete with Ijuuin Enzan.

But of course, she had to leave it up to Netto to choose with who he would want to be with.

"Meiru-chan!" Roll's desperate voice called out. "I need your help!"

The small projected form of the pink Navi appeared in front of Meiru's face, momentarily startling her. She noticed how close Roll was on the verge of crying.

"Roll, what's wrong?" Meiru asked.

"I lost Rockman to that Navi, Medi," Roll explained through her tears. "I need your help in winning him back!"

"I don't think I'd be much help since I'm alone too," Meiru replied softly.

"Eh?! Netto's run off with Jasmine?! Why aren't you fighting back?!"

"What more can I do for him? Besides, he has his rights to be with other people that don't get to spend time with him as much as we do, even if…" Meiru sighed, struggling against her own insecurities. "… Even if they happen to be girls too."

"What?! I can't believe you're giving him up just like that!" Roll exclaimed, outraged by this response.

"I didn't say I was giving up on him for good!" Meiru continued heatedly. "Netto's a big boy now and he has to make such decisions on his own. He already knows me well enough, which is why he had the right to get to know Jasmine so that he could make a choice."

"So you're just going to wait and hope that he picks you over her?" Roll surmised skeptically.

"… Well… that's kinda the idea…"

"I really can't believe this," Roll sighed.

"What's with you all of a sudden?" Meiru shot back, not liking how immature her Navi was behaving. "I think you're taking this a bit too far, Roll. It's only been another visit."

"You just don't get it, do you?"

"What?"

"You won't be able to get anyone, much less Netto, if you're not proactive in your approach," Roll said with a serious look. "I'm losing Rockman to someone that he met for just a short time. I've been patient with other Navis like Aquaman trying to take his attention, but Medi winning for the umpteenth time in the row is where _I draw the line_! I'm not about to give up Rockman to Medi! I'm going off to Net City to find something to help me if you're not going to help me with this."

With those words, Roll's form disappeared. Meiru checked her PET screen and sure enough, her Navi was no longer present. She knew Roll can take good care of herself… for the most part, but even if something were to happen, she was aware that both Rockman and Medi would be around Internet City hopefully to help out, as selfish and pitiful as it sounded.

Meiru was going to visit some friends before heading home to manually clean up her PC for the new school year. She wasn't lying that she had backup plans in case Netto really was unable to spend time with her for the day.

* * *

**This was originally going to be one chapter, but it'd be easier to split it up into a few more chapters. Anyway, I know that in reality that Roll wouldn't go completely overboard for Rockman's affections, but the cause for the main conflict of this fic will start next chapter. I know that she and Meiru are basically type-B tsunderes, or at least Meiru is since Roll is more expressive of her attraction. But with the right buttons pushed, Roll could also just as easily cross over to the yandere side, considering how easily jealous and clingy she can get. Thus, this fic was born. Though I'm not going to have Meiru cross over to the yandere side too. That'd be too messy to deal with. It's already one thing having a yandere Navi.**

**Also, I don't know why, but I find both Roll and Meiru cute when they're jealous. Still not as cute as Jasmine and Medi in their natural state though…**

**Please review!**


	2. Love Love Chip!

**Thanks for bearing with me. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Roll traveled about in New Net City, trying to come up with a way to win back Rockman with a side bonus of crushing Medi, or at least her heart as she did with hers earlier in the day. It was already mid-afternoon as she walked the streets, passing familiar Navi stores a few times in a row now. She wasn't about to log out and return to Meiru empty-handed.

"Geez, this is harder than I thought," Roll pondered, mildly frustrated at her fruitless attempts.

The pink Navi glanced to her left, spying upon an ice cream and soda shop. Sure enough, Rockman was inside treating Medi with a blueberry cone. Both of them appeared to have gotten blueberry cones, somewhat matching both the color of Rockman's outfit and Medi's hair and helmet.

Roll enviously huffed her cheeks again and turned away, not wanting to watch such a sickeningly happy scene with Rockman enjoying dessert with a Navi that wasn't her. She remembered the last time the blue bomber Navi treated her to ice cream, that she got strawberry to match her color theme while Rockman got mixed berry. It was an explosion of flavors when they got to share.

But now, it only seemed to hurt her thinking back at that memory after seeing Rockman and Medi together inside. This emotion that humans created called love was quite the double-edged sword. She certainly didn't like being at the end that's been hurting her, but now that pain's becoming frequent to the point that she's starting to become numb.

Roll dragged her feet along and attempted to regain some semblance of dignity left before resuming her search for a way on winning back Rockman. After traveling a few meters forward, she discovered a wooden stand by an alley that wasn't there before. After all, she had already traveled this street about four times today.

"That wasn't there before, was it?" Roll muttered, bewildered.

As she approached the stand, a brown Navi with white armor on his upper body rose up from behind the stand. He waved his arms over the empty counter and almost instantly, holographic projections of his wares materialized and hovered about.

"I see you've an eye for rare collectibles and merchandise, yes?" the merchant Navi asked.

The look in his eyes was seedy and his sleazy accent didn't help out his credibility at all.

"No, not really, but I don't recall ever seeing this stand before," Roll said.

"Ah, I am only in town for a short time, selling my wares in order to get by, no?" the merchant Navi explained. "I can tell that you're seeking better fortune and luck in your life, yes?"

"In a way, but I'm not interested," Roll replied, beginning to walk away. "I know where this is going."

"But miss, not even a little help with your love life, no?" the merchant Navi offered.

Roll immediately stopped in her tracks. She had to be really stupid, insane, or a combination of both to fall for this Navi's alluring words. She's seen scenarios like this before, making underground deals with shady people and NetNavis. But then again, she's out of options in trying to win over Rockman. And from their earlier encounter, it sounded like Medi and her NetOp, Jasmine, would be staying for quite some time in Japan, which would certainly make it difficult for her to get the blue bomber Navi back to her side if Medi continued with her effective "in-town-for-a-short-time" card.

Plus, what is the worst thing that could happen? Get swindled out of all her money? She knew enough how to handle such situations, and anything potentially dangerous that she might purchase would be immediately disposed of and/or reported to the Net Police.

With a heavy sigh, the pink Navi walked back to the shifty merchant Navi with crossed arms over her emblem.

"I guess I can hear out what you're trying to sell me," Roll said. "There better not be any tricks or strings attached. I'm watching you carefully, got it?"

"You have, how you say, 'my word,' yes?" the merchant Navi promised, holding his hands up. "No tricks up these sleeves. I'm not even wearing sleeves. Now, you're having problems with your love life, no?"

"Yes… in a way," Roll admitted begrudgingly, narrowing her eyes to where Rockman and Medi were leaving the ice cream shop.

"Then I have this really rare chip that will help you win against your love rival, yes," the merchant Navi said, clearing out the remaining of his wares until a single chip remained on his table.

Roll had a bad feeling about this.

"That better not be a Dark Chip you're trying to sell me, or a Devil Chip for that matter," Roll accused harshly.

"No, miss! I wouldn't be caught deleted with such awful things in these hands, no!" the merchant Navi exclaimed, trying to prove his innocence. "If you want, you can scan the data of this chip and any correlation between it and those chips you hate, you can sentence me away for deletion, yes?"

The chip materialized into its physical form from its hologram and floated into Roll's hands. The pink Navi raised her antennae around the chip and began scanning its properties through her databanks to see if there was a match between it and the infamous Dark Chip. She also did a secondary scan for the Devil Chip properties since that incident long ago at the N1 Grand Prix in that tag-team match against Fireman and Coloredman. Meiru made sure to be wary of that chip since then.

After a few moments, her search came up negative. There was nothing malicious detected within that chip. Seeing Roll's expression soften, the merchant Navi also relaxed a bit. With that settled, Roll decided to examine the cover of the chip.

"You like, no?"

The main picture had a large pink heart in the center of a bright orange background, along with what appeared to be the heart's casted shadow in the upper left corner.

"This looks promising," Roll commented, brightening up. "I've never seen a chip like this before. What is it?"

"That, I do not have the full story behind myself, but I do know this, yes?" the merchant Navi answered. "It is called the Love Love Chip, a rare chip said to enhance and fortify the feelings of romance a NetNavi has for another. In your case, it'll make logging out and weeping at your standby time before sleep mode no longer an option as you endure rejection after rejection after rejection until your beloved Navi sees how dedicated you are to him and becomes enamored with you, no?"

"Yes! I need something like this to pick me up after losing Rockman to that Medi!" Roll exclaimed, eyes shimmering out as though this chip was too good to be true. "How much for it?"

"Well, normally, I would charge a high price for a chip this rare and valuable," the merchant Navi bartered, slapping his counter with a paper fan as his way of sealing the deal. "But for a sweet young girl like you wanting for your Navi to fall for you, I believe this should be a reasonable price, yes?"

Roll eagerly went through the exchange, right as the merchant Navi said no refunds. The price wasn't even that high anyway. The pink Navi didn't care as with the Love Love Chip, she should be able to handle any trick Medi would throw her way and even reduce her into a miserable crying mess while Rockman is swept back into her loving arms, where he's supposed to belong.

Unbeknownst to either Roll or the merchant Navi, a certain red Navi with long white hair watched the transaction from a short distance disapprovingly.

* * *

_Later that night…_

Meiru was standing on the steps of her front door, watching the clear night sky. The most recent weather report stated that tomorrow was going to be another perfect day of sunshine. She had finished cleaning up and tuning her PC and needed some fresh air. At the same time, she began making plans on spending time with Netto tomorrow despite failing to do so today.

Speaking of the Net Savior…

"Oi, Meiru-chan, what's up?" Netto asked, stopping by as he was heading home.

"I just finished cleaning up my PC and waiting for Roll to return from her trip in New Net City," Meiru explained. "How was your day with Jasmine?"

"It was loads of fun!" Netto exclaimed with a thumbs-up. "I knew she was weird at times by popping out of nowhere looking for flowers and doing all that crazy athletic stuff, but she actually outlasted me in our curry-eating contest."

"Eh?!"

"Yep, it turned out she didn't eat for _four _days just so that she could beat me," Netto chuckled. "Crazy, huh? At the same time, amazing! I don't think I can last _that_ long without food. She was really preparing to come here and spend time with me, huh?"

"That's… great," Meiru muttered, holding back her own fists from clobbering that naïve boy standing in front of her.

"I just walked her to her apartment after spending the rest of the day exploring Densen Tower," Netto continued, about to leave. "Anyway, have a good night, Meiru-chan!"

"Wait, Netto!" Meiru called out. "Are you doing anything tomorrow?"

"Mm, I don't have plans, though I'm sure Jasmine has some more she wants to do, now that I think of it," Netto mused.

"Oh, I see," Meiru said, looking at the ground sadly.

"Why don't you join us tomorrow this time?" Netto offered, catching the red-haired girl off guard.

"What? Are you sure?"

"I don't think Jasmine would mind too much," Netto shrugged, eliciting another mental face palm on Meiru's side.

_I think you have no idea that she's basically getting you to date her,_ Meiru thought, frowning.

"Plus, I miss hanging out with you, Meiru-chan," Netto continued, causing the girl to look up to him incredulously. "That's if you're not busy tomorrow yourself?"

"Yeah, that'd be fine," Meiru answered, optimistic for another chance to be with her childhood friend, even with additional company with them. She'll just have to learn to improvise.

"Awesome! See you tomorrow then," Netto replied, waving good-bye and heading home.

"Yeah, tomorrow," Meiru repeated, smiling fondly at that idiot boy that she's _clearly_ enamored with.

Her PET started making a few sounds moments after Netto left. It signaled Meiru that Roll had just returned to her. The red-haired girl made her way back inside her house and up to her bedroom to privately converse with her NetNavi.

"Hi, Meiru-chan! I'm back!" Roll greeted in her projected form standing on her NetOp's desk, notably more cheerful than before.

"Roll, what's going on?" Meiru asked. "Why did you take so long to return?"

"It took me the whole afternoon to find what I was looking for, and this is what I got from my search," Roll said, presenting a chip in her hands.

"What kind of chip is that? A Battle Chip?" Meiru inquired, trying to take a good look at the chip.

"It's called the 'Love Love Chip,' and it's going to help me win Rockman back," Roll explained.

The pink Navi took the opportunity to display the screen detailing the Love Love Chip for Meiru to understand, just to keep her at ease. Meiru didn't look convinced, but she didn't appear disapproving over her Navi's actions any longer. She merely kept her suspicions to herself.

"I hope we're not going to have a repeat of the Devil Chip, are we?" Meiru asked skeptically.

"No! Promise!" Roll pleaded. "Besides, even if that _somehow_ happened again, all you have to do is to put in another chip in order for me to reject the effects again. Plus, I scanned it thoroughly and it came up negative. And the absolute worst case possible is that nothing happens, which shouldn't be the case as it does a functioning program."

"Then let's try it," Meiru suggested, holding up a blank chip to first store the data of the Love Love Chip.

If the Devil Roll incident would happen again, Meiru would know how to expel that chip and prevent unnecessary damage. With a confirming nod from Roll, the red-haired girl inserted the blank chip into her PET. The image of the Love Love Chip started to appear as Meiru watched the download process.

For a moment, a minor detail caught her eye. Meiru could've sworn she saw a bright glowing round eye coming from the shadow heart before it became solid pitch black. Her thought process was interrupted when her PET signaled the completion of the download.

"Ready when you are, Meiru-chan!" Roll called out.

"Are you sure about this?" Meiru asked.

"Yes, so please, Meiru-chan," Roll said. "This is for Rockman."

"Okay then," Meiru took a deep breath and held the new chip high. "Love Love Chip! Slot-in!"

After injecting the Love Love Chip into the PET, it rematerialized next to Roll on screen before fittingly dissolving into digital hearts and swarming all around the pink Navi. Roll absorbed the data and for a few moments stood still with her eyes closed.

"… …"

"Well? Anything?" Meiru asked, concerned that Roll was immobile for a bit.

"…"

After ten seconds, the red-haired girl brought out another chip prepared for such occasions.

"That's it! I'm getting that chip out!" Meiru declared.

Just before she was about to slot-in…

"WOW! I feel great!" Roll cried out, stretching her arms up.

The intensity of her voice caught her NetOp off guard as she nearly fell backwards on her chair. Roll was completely unaware of said accident and giggled rather childishly.

"Don't scare me like that, geez," Meiru groaned, struggling to keep her balance.

"I'm sorry, Meiru-chan!" Roll replied, her voice full of squeaky affection. "It's just that I can't wait for tomorrow and show how much Rock-kun means to me! Also to teach that mean Medi a thing or two about being a PET-wrecker!"

"It doesn't seem detrimental or malicious, but already I'm regretting using that chip," Meiru remarked, slightly sickened on how love-struck Roll was behaving now. At least she wasn't wallowing about in misery this time. "Roll, keep a full-system scan on yourself so that we can be sure that there are no adverse effects from the Love Love Chip."

"Anything for you, Meiru-chan!" Roll exclaimed, starting up the process. "It's set for overnight monitoring while I enter sleep mode. I hope to have beautiful night dream-data streams with Rock-kun tonight! Hee hee!"

"Right…" Meiru muttered as she got ready for bed by quickly dressing into her pajamas. "Well, it'll be a new day and hopefully you won't take losing Rockman to Medi as hard as today."

"No need to worry, Meiru-chan!" Roll assured, showing off a victory sign with her fingers. "In fact, I'm certain that I'll win this time!"

"If you say so, just don't take it personally," Meiru yawned, climbing into bed after shutting off the lights. "Good night!"

Roll's screen stayed active for a bit as she watched her NetOp fall asleep. Her lack of faith in her being able to win back Rockman was more amusing than discouraging.

"It _will_ be a new day…" Roll repeated, the focused look of her once vibrant green eyes slowly becoming glassy and glazed over. "… And Rockman _will be mine_…!"

* * *

**And there you have it. Now would be the time to panic if you're a Navi in her way to Rockman. Again, I'm surprised no one has written something like this already. But I guess I don't mind being the first, as strange as it feels.**

**Also, the merchant Navi was slightly based of that Magikarp Salesman from _Pokémon_. Strangely enough, I found his earlier English portrayals to be hilarious, especially when he tricked James of Team Rocket in buying a Magikarp that eventually became a Gyarados that wouldn't "obey him." Good times.**

**Please review!**


	3. Lying in Wait

**Third chapter here! Enjoy!**

* * *

_The next day…_

The morning was peaceful and sunny as yesterday, only with an addition of a few small clouds in the sky. In Sakurai Meiru's bedroom, the waking alarm clock went off and the young girl quickly used a hand to seize the off button.

Responsible and diligent as ever, she stretched herself awake and quickly made her bed in order to prepare for an eventful and possibly great day with Netto, even if Jasmine was still going to be around him.

"Morning, Roll," Meiru called out to her PET. A few seconds went by and there was no immediate answer. "Roll? You there?"

"Good morning, Meiru-chan~!" Roll chimed, her small projected form appearing on the desk. "Did you sleep well?"

"I did. You seem quite energetic this morning. Are you at full health now?"

"Yep~! And my scans show no immediate threat or danger to my system, so the Love Love Chip has been a success!"

"I guess that should be good news then," Meiru said. "I can't believe I'm going to ask this, but are you ready to try again with Rockman and Medi?"

"I definitely am~!" Roll replied cheerily. "In fact, I even got out of sleep mode earlier to plan my day with Rock-kun! Medi has absolutely _no_ chance! I also wish you best of luck in stealing Netto away from Jasmine, Meiru-chan!"

"Eh… I wouldn't word it like that," Meiru remarked, feeling uneasy over how overzealous Roll was behaving. "The way you said it sounded so ambiguous, making _me_ sound like the home wrecker instead."

"Gee, I'm sorry about that, Meiru-chan," Roll said, still smiling widely. "I forgot that you're taking the 'passive' approach in getting Netto's attention."

"I still think you're taking this a bit too far, Roll."

"Whatever you say! I'll see you later with Rock-kun's hand in mine~!"

Right before Roll left, Meiru was observant enough to catch the look in her Navi's eyes. Her green eyes, despite how wide they were with mirth, appeared glassy and almost lifeless. Though she was too late to stop the pink Navi leaving, she kept a mental note to be weary if she ever saw that strange look in her eyes again.

She was also worried on how serious Roll sounded when she mentioned having Rockman's hand, but perhaps she was only overthinking it. Still, crazier things beyond her imagination have happened in the past.

It might be a side effect of that Love Love Chip that Roll allowed her to use last night, but Meiru had a dreading feeling about it. This feeling wasn't about to go away soon, even as she went about her morning business, got cleaned up and dressed, and prepared for the rest of the day.

Meanwhile, while Netto was about to leave his house, Roll immediately barged into his PET for the purpose of confronting and being with Rockman before Medi had a chance to snag him into her hands again.

"Good morning, Rock-kun~!" Roll sang, catching the blue bomber Navi off guard with her sudden presence.

"Aah! Roll-chan, don't sneak up on me like that," Rockman gasped.

He was further surprised and concerned when the pink Navi suddenly caught him in a big hug that essentially spelled out how much she would refuse to let him go. It was certainly more intense than the time she and Aquaman were competing against each other to be with him.

"You're so silly~!" Roll chided playfully, forcibly snuggling her cheek against one side of Rockman's face.

"… Uh…" Rockman was a bit uncomfortable with the excessive display of affection his friend was giving him.

"Hey, Roll, is Meiru-chan also coming along?" Netto asked as he finally noticed her upon leaving his front doorstep.

"Mm, she'll be on her way out shortly," Roll replied, still fondling the perturbed Rockman with no signs of stopping.

"Got it."

Right as Netto walked out of his yard and into the direction of Meiru's house, he quickly noticed a growing shadow in front of him.

"Netto, ni hao!"

The brunette Net Savior sweatdropped, thinking that this entrance certainly topped all of her past stunts. He backed up a bit and saw Jasmine slowly descending from the sky with the use of her umbrella. Instead of continuing to stare incredulously as she landed, Netto returned a grin, having expected such a feat from the Choina girl.

"Ohayo gozaimasu, Jasmine!" Netto replied for a good morning, Japanese style; Jasmine giggled.

"Are you ready for another day of adventure around Densan?" the Choinese girl asked. "I want to see how the animals are doing too, like Danpa and Hoshi."

"Sure, but I first need to ask you if it's okay for Meiru-chan to come with us too," Netto suggested.

Jasmine appeared confused at first, then pensive.

"Well, I guess there's nothing wrong for her to come along if she wants, just as long as you're happy being with me," Jasmine answered.

"Why would I not be? You're a really special friend of mine that I don't get to see every day, much like Laika and Princess Pride," Netto pointed out. Jasmine nodded in understanding. "They also live in different countries and I only get to see them on Net Savior missions and at times of celebration, which don't happen often."

"I see," Jasmine said, strangely looking a bit disappointed before resuming her cheery self again. "Well then, I'm glad to at least be special friends with you for now!"

"Of course!"

"Hey, you two! I'm here!" Meiru's voice called out.

Netto and Jasmine saw Meiru running out of her door and waving to them to wait for her. Right as she reached the two of them, Jasmine was eager to start the day with whatever she had planned while she was staying in Densan City. She grabbed one of Netto's arms.

"Now that we're together, let's have some more fun with this place!" Jasmine declared, pulling a surprised Netto along.

"Netto, that baka," Meiru sighed as she went up to catch up to them.

Some things haven't really changed, though the same can't be said about what's going on in the cyber world…

* * *

_Cyber World_

Unlike with the human Operators, tension was strong and unstable between two certain female Navis. On one side, Medi was staring down Roll crossly for what she was doing with Rockman. On the other side, Roll had Rockman completely bound in her strong hug while returning a furious glare of her own.

"If Rock-kun was human and had the need to breathe, he wouldn't be able to with you squeezing the life out of him like that," Medi argued.

"Jealous that he _loves_ my hugs more than yours?" Roll retorted.

"I doubt that _anyone_ would like a hug that's also covering their mouth in addition to constricting their _neck_!"

"Hmph!"

The only thing that Rockman did not like more than being restrained against his will were his two friends fighting the way they were right now. He could've also sworn that he saw a look that threatened deletion from Roll as Medi goaded her on. The blue bomber Navi decided to try and get Roll off of him and put a stop to whatever was going on between the two females.

The moment Medi saw Rockman attempting to break free, the nurse Navi made a dash forward to help him out. In retaliation, Roll used one hand to turn it into her bow for her Roll Arrow attack. Medi was surprised and confused on the rather great lengths Roll was taking now and thus prepared a Medi Capsule behind herself in case she really had to use force to knock some sense into that somewhat psychotic pink Navi.

"That's enough! Both of you!" Rockman shouted, breaking out of Roll's grip to intercept the two warring Navis.

He placed a hand to divert the unlaunched Roll Arrow down and another to prevent Medi from attacking back. Both females, upon realizing that their beloved blue bomber Navi was in their attack paths, came to a sudden halt while dispersing their respective attacks.

"… Rock-kun," both Medi and Roll mumbled regretfully.

"You're both intelligent and advanced enough not to resort to immediate violence to solve a problem," Rockman scolded, keeping his hands up to make sure they weren't going to resume attacking each other. "I'm really upset about the two of you behaving this way."

"I'm really sorry I was out of line, Rock-kun," Medi was quick to apologize, taking his hand into hers. "This was not how I wanted to spend my time here with you."

"I forgive you both and hope you two will learn to settle your differences," Rockman said, breaking out of his defensive stand and unwittingly taking Medi's hands into his to return her sincerity.

Upon seeing this display, Roll felt a sharp jolt of pain around her chest, particularly around her crest area. Her sensors registered it as another human equivalence to heartache in response to _her_ Rockman returning the affections of her declared love rival. Yet something strange was developing inside of her, as if her range of emotional reactions had increased from the set she had. More to the point, instead of flipping out and crying over it as she would do over losing Rockman to Medi or even punishing Rockman with a slap or a stomp over his oblivious nature, she eerily remained calm with her head slightly lowered by which her eyes were shadowed underneath her helmet.

"Uh, Roll-chan, are you alright?" Rockman asked, concerned the way his longtime friend appeared.

Roll then stood back full height with a bright smile on her face, eyes cheerfully closed.

"Of course I am, Rock-kun~!" Roll replied as though the previous fight with Medi did not exist. "I'm happy that you've forgiven me. Can we just spend the day together?"

"Good to hear you're feeling better, and of course," Rockman answered, then turning to Medi. "I hope you don't mind this, Medi-chan."

The nurse Navi didn't like this for a few reasons. Just like her rival, she wasn't about to let any potential intimate time with Rockman go to waste because of a third wheel getting in the way. However, what concerned Medi a bit more was Roll's strange behavior, swinging from violently possessive to suddenly sweet and understanding.

She didn't know what kind of game the pink Navi was playing, but Medi knew that in order to find out more what was going on with her, she would have to play along for now and sacrifice a few moments with Rockman to find out what's going on with Roll.

Plus, she wanted to stay in Rockman's good side in order to better her own chances in being with him before Roll could bounce back against her.

"Well, I'll admit that I'm not too fond about this, but I'll be happy to oblige only for you, Rock-kun," Medi said, taking one of his arms into hers once again.

Roll was quick to take Rockman's other arm as well, only to be followed by a moment of a heated stare between the two competing females. Rockman chuckled uneasily, still not used to this much affection from two female Navis.

"Anyway, there's this new gaming place that just opened up that Numberman told me about," Rockman said. "He took both Iceman and Aquaman there to play and he said that they all enjoyed it. It's said to have a variety of over two hundred mini games, similar to that from Mariko Party. Let's check it out."

"Uh, 'Mariko Party'?" Medi repeated. "I thought it was called 'Mari−whoa!"

Roll had forcibly tugged Rockman along, which in turn caused the nurse Navi to be inadvertently pulled along before she had a chance to finish.

"Come on~!" Roll sang. "We're wasting our day arguing over some name issue! Let's go!"

Medi kept quiet during their traveling back to New Net City, though she still couldn't help but feel unnerved at that loving, yet blank look Roll was giving to Rockman the whole way.

* * *

**I just want to build this up a bit more before Roll completely loses her sanity and goes through the typical violent tirade. And ending here seemed appropriate with a suspicious Medi along for the ride. Oh Mariko Party, the game that's been known to end friendships, at least so I've heard. Any guess to what I was **_**really**_** going for there?**

**Please review!**


	4. Play Time

**Nothing new to say here right now. That is all.**

* * *

The situation between Roll and Medi had calmed down for now, as far as Rockman was concerned. Along the way to the newly built game site in New Net City, neither female NetNavi spoke to one another and subtly tried to hog the blue bomber Navi's attention all for herself. Fortunately for Rockman, the tension would temporarily dissipate.

"Guys, look! It's Rockman!"

"Rockman, pyu!"

"With Roll and Medi no less. Oh, dear."

They somehow encountered the trio of Numberman, Iceman, and Aquaman momentarily during their trip, all six exchanging greetings with one another. They had returned from another round from the new gaming place. However, the latter three, at least with Numberman, did note how abnormally clingy Roll was on Rockman and how distrusting Medi looked about it. Iceman and Aquaman thought that Medi was being jealous and were childishly teasing her about it. The nurse Navi was fortunately good-natured about their playfulness until Numberman got them to stop as something about Roll just made him particularly uneasy, prompting all of them to part ways immediately. Roll seemed to have been taking the younger Navis' taunting a little _too_ seriously.

Rockman kind of wished they stayed around a bit longer as he was still having a hard time tending to both Roll and Medi. Not wanting to upset the other Navi that wasn't getting his attention, he tried to be fair and easygoing enough to be able to switch back and forth to tend to their needs. Medi appeared somewhat content, if not suspicious of Roll. The pink Navi, on the other hand, wasn't as fussy or violent as she usually was, but attempted to relish every opportunity whenever Rockman glanced at her direction, as if her cyber life depended on it.

Or at least someone's life would be dependent on it…

"Girls, we're here," Rockman spoke up, hoping to break up and ease the tension.

Both Roll and Medi looked up and saw a large tower with lights streaming out of the windows in place of the cleared block of cyberspace that used to be there a while back. The name of the site was large and colorful, further emphasizing its role as a place for games and fun for NetNavis.

"'Yuugi Paati,'" Medi read aloud. "I guess they're really trying to sell it home the fact it's a 'game party' tower. Spelling could use some work, though."

"This looks like a lot of fun," Rockman added. "Shall we go in?"

"I get to be on Rock-kun's team~!" Roll declared.

"Numberman told me that most of the games here require four players," Rockman brought up. "So unless a fourth Navi wants to play under team battle, I'm afraid we're entitled to mainly free-for-all mini games."

Roll felt another surge of pain around her crest area, but she managed to suppress her reaction. She appeared to have taken a deep breath before resuming a cheery face.

"You're right~! No need to worry about such things after all," Roll said, skipping along and heading in, purposefully brushing into Medi along the way.

The nurse Navi caressed the arm Roll bumped into as she watched the pink Navi enter the Yuugi Paati tower ahead. Rockman walked up closer, confused over Roll's rather strange behavior.

"Was it something I said?" Rockman asked. "Roll-chan just seems out of it today, more so than yesterday."

"More like can't take a hint," Medi offered as an afterthought. "As much as I don't want to admit, I think she needs to be kept under close observation."

"You might be right," Rockman said worriedly. "I hope nothing's wrong with her. She's one of my best friends next to Netto-kun and his friends."

"I honestly hope nothing's wrong with her too," Medi shared. _Even though she's my rival for you, Rock-kun…_

She then rejoined an arm around one of Rockman's arms once again, this time with the intent of comforting him with the addition of her typical affection for her beloved blue Navi.

"Thanks, Medi-chan," Rockman smiled, rubbing her arm affectionately, which caused Medi to blush nearly heavily from the sudden reciprocation. "I've really glad to have special friends like you around, just like with Blues, Searchman, and all the other good NetNavis I've known and fought alongside with."

"Think nothing of it, Rock-kun," Medi replied. _'Special friends,' huh? I guess it'll have to do for now, but no need to rush, especially since Roll is now basically downgrading herself into a desperate lovesick puppy. Still, I'll have to be careful around her little ruse just in case she really plans to steal away Rock-kun._

And so, the young and rather blue-themed Navi pair entered Yuugi Paati as part to enjoy their time together, as well as to see if it was as great and entertaining as Numberman, Iceman, and Aquaman had made it out to be.

Of course, their little moment outside did not go unnoticed.

Roll had been secretly hiding behind the entrance door, silently observing them and listening in on them. It was as her recently new stream of thoughts had confirmed much to her greatest fear…

Rockman was falling for Medi, she could just tell from the way he looked at her despite appearing as clueless, friendly, and good-natured as he always was.

The pink Navi could feel it in her data. New functions that were opening up and activated in her mind were giving her new directives on how to handle Rockman's increasing closeness with that other female NetNavi. Roll herself would never have analyzed or considered these new "else if" functions, these alternatives to handle this dire situation. She realized that all these things helping her at this time, including the painful jolts reminiscent to human heartbreak, came from that chip.

The Love Love Chip…

It had been "punishing" her for failing to get closer to her Rockman than Medi by making her realize how great human emotional pain could be. Roll wanted to delete herself every time she felt that painful surge upon seeing Medi getting another step closer to the blue bomber Navi. But instead of doing so, the effects of the Love Love Chip had been guiding her to new viable alternatives on handling the pain and finding other ways to win back Rockman and defeat Medi. But no matter how persistent and confident she was now after using that chip, Rockman's own thickheaded nature and Medi's charms brushed her efforts off.

And now after this last display of affection, wherein Rockman actually repaid that wretched nurse Navi with his own affection by rubbing her arm, a final ultimatum had made itself known to Roll. This was her last chance before they become official. This was a desperate time now.

Thanks to the Love Love Chip, Roll literally couldn't compile the thought of Rockman being happy with another Navi, more specifically Medi now, while her naturally loving heart feature remained empty and underappreciated. She didn't want to try to imagine it anyway as it would only make the searing data pain worse. It made her want to rip her crest off her chest and crush it under her foot had it not already been numbed by Medi already doing it for her by winning over Rockman with her many tricks and wiles.

That smug nurse…

Just replaying that saved image of her happy face shared with her Rockman's face and loading it to the main front of her mental interface, Roll knew what she had to do now. Her completely idle, glassy, and lifeless eyes foreshadowed no remorse for what she now planned to do to that thieving Medi and that traitorous Rockman.

"You _will_ be mine, Rock-kun~!" Roll giggled to herself. "I'll save you from her. I promise. Tee hee~!"

Roll held up her right fist and clenched it tightly, which in turn slowly converted into a large… shiny… sharp… … silver… … … machete…

* * *

_Though at the meantime…_

Despite not seeing Roll after entering the tower, Rockman and Medi decided to try out some random free-for-all mini games with other present Net Navis. Since the entrance was also the only exit aside from emergency exits, they had requested the Guard Navis to alert them if they saw Roll leaving Yuugi Paati.

The Guard Navis agreed to their request and had also stated that they saw their pink Navi friend make her way inside to play. From that information, Rockman and Medi assumed that Roll was planning to take out her aggression by playing a few games with some other Navis before returning to them.

With that scenario handled and taken care of, they opted to have some fun while Medi was still around and try out some of Yuugi Paati's recommended mini games for the day. They went to the central hub of the tower, where the menu of mini games could be viewed as well as the location and floors on where the mini games can be accessed.

There were some free-for-all games that were completely random in topic, such as playing musical bongos in a follow-the-leader-esque fashion to playing jump rope with a chain of fireballs as the rope.

Then there were classic block puzzle games to simple brawling on top of a glacier to be the last one standing within a minute.

Next set were mini games based on luck, such as trying to pick a card on a table with the highest value from a shuffled deck to choosing a random door that doesn't lead to a dead end under ten seconds while being chased by small viruses. Those were not particularly appealing.

Finally, they had special boss battle mini games where players were to work together to take down a giant boss figure while at the same time, earn the most points doing so by dealing the most damage and avoiding the boss's attacks as to not lose points. One featured boss had a particular gameplay of hitting random blocks at certain moments to produce the greater power to knock him out. The other also had the interesting gameplay of using dice to decide who attacks the most.

"A lot of these mini game look so really amazing," Rockman remarked, impressed by the colorful and vibrant display images representing for each game. "If I actually didn't the time to read each description, even the luck-based mini games would've appealed to me right there."

"You shouldn't look down on the luck games, Rock-kun," Medi said. "You never know what happens. For all you know, the table could reverse to your favor."

"Maybe, but I'm more into action than guessing which card has the most points," Rockman replied. "Let's try the glacier brawling game first."

"Hmm, a few of the not featured mini games I found first include a mini kart racing and… balancing yourself on a narrow canyon ridge maze as you make it to the end before the time limit ends?"

"Wow, that one sounds a bit more challenging. Let's do that first!"

"While I don't have a particular fear of heights, I really hope I don't lose it up there."

"You'll be fine, Medi-chan," Rockman reassured. "It's all for fun, right?"

"Right," Medi agreed while shifting through the available mini games, only for a particular one to catch her eye. She smirked as she couldn't help herself, but she will beg for Rockman's forgiveness if she had to for this one. "Hey, Rock-kun, since you said you had no particular preference to which mini games you want to play, how about this one where you get lost in a haunted mansion and bring a light bulb to its main generator before the ghosts inside capture you?"

"… … … … Ghosts…?"

"… … Rock-kun?" Medi became worried.

"… … … … EHHHH?!"

"Oops…"

Medi would understand if Rockman stopped using an honorific, affectionate suffix to her name from this point on. It'd hurt, but she'll get over it at some point, at least she hoped.

* * *

_After some time playing…_

"Wow! That boss battle with the dice was so exhilarating!" Rockman exclaimed, leaving the port of said mini game, followed by Medi.

"Yeah! I enjoyed it a lot, too," Medi concurred.

In reality, a couple of hours had already passed since they entered Yuugi Paati. Both Rockman and Medi played almost all of the featured mini games of the day, as well as other random mini games that caught their eye. Of course, it was coming to the point that they needed to take a break despite having a little more than over two hundred mini games left to play and possibly even set records in, such as shortest time or most chips collected in certain collecting mini games.

"Great job, guys," a fellow player Navi congratulated, receiving nods from Rockman and Medi.

"Hey, um, Rock-kun?" Medi called out.

"What's going on, Medi-chan?" Rockman answered.

"You do know that I'm _sorry_ about earlier, right?" Medi reminded, looking down at her feet sheepishly afterwards.

The nurse Navi still felt super guilty over bringing up the ghost mini game to him, even though he was bound to encounter a few games that had haunted house and horror settings the deeper he searched in the menu.

"All in the past," Rockman brushed off with a smile. "I've already forgiven you, so you don't have to keep apologizing to me after every mini game we play."

"Uh-huh," Medi nodded, still feeling sorry over the incident invoking the blue Navi's phobia. "I really am sorry…" She whispered it to the side. It was still too unbelievable to her on how forgiving Rockman was, even with dealing with something that he seriously feared.

"Anyway, it's been a while now so we need to find Roll-chan and make sure she's okay," Rockman suggested.

And as if on cue…

A Guard Navi ran up to them, seemingly out of breath and appeared to be scuffed and damaged. Rockman was quick to support him while Medi applied a healing technique on him to rejuvenate and repair his data.

"I've been… looking for you two," the Guard Navi panted. "… She's… She's left the tower."

"But what happened to you?" Medi asked. "What happened to Roll?"

"That's just it… See for yourself… outside…"

A look of dread occupied Medi's face while Rockman appeared very alert. Facing each other and giving understanding nods, the two Navis mobilized into action. Leaving the Guard Navi to rest at the side, Rockman and Navi rushed to the entrance of Yuugi Paati. They cursed their luck for not only playing for so long, but to also play a mini game that was several floor above ground. It took a while for them to make it down to the first floor and central hub. There appeared to be some sort of commotion taking place just outside the tower, indicated by how many bystanding Navis were watching and a few others attempting to run away.

Sensing a potential threat, Rockman conjured his Rock Buster while Medi was ready to back him up with a Medi Capsule on hand. He already had authority as a Net Savior Navi to take action if necessary, and this sounded serious enough to consider using weapons. As they reached outside, they saw a standard Navi being tossed in front of them, only for his data to break up before their eyes and be deleted. The savage thing was he appeared to have lost an arm while most of his body, prior to deletion, was slashed up pretty badly.

Medi detested seeing an innocent Navi being mercilessly deleted before her eyes. Rockman held his Buster up to where the culprit stood as three more bystander Navis were decapitated by a sharp blade and deleted all at once. That Navi exterminator had purposefully darkened their features on sight, but Rockman was able to make out that the figure was roughly between his and Medi's height.

"You there, hands up in the air!" Rockman commanded. "Leave those NetNavis alone and deal with me."

The culprit seemed to have heard him as they gave a rather girlish twirl to reveal themselves… or rather herself. Rockman and Medi were stunned on the spot from the revelation. The Rock Buster was disengaged while Medi disposed of her Capsule. Both of them were still trying to comprehend what was going on.

"Hello, you two~!" she greeted darkly. "Lovely weather we've been having, is it not?"

"Roll-chan…" Rockman muttered, still horrorstruck over the fact that the one that was deleting Navis was the once loveable, heroic pink Navi herself.

"How could you?!" Medi cried out furiously.

"Pardon? 'How could I' what?" Roll asked tranquilly.

"Don't play dumb with us!" Medi accused. "Rock-kun and I just caught _you_ deleting those two Navis. Seriously, what's your problem?!"

"Oh, just playing my own mini game~!" Roll replied.

"You're really corrupt, you know," Medi retorted, really angered on how lightly Roll was treating this situation. "What kind of 'mini game' involves you deleting actual NetNavis? Do you think _this_ is supposed to impress Rock-kun?!"

"What?!" Rockman coughed, looking back and forth Medi and Roll incredulously.

"Yep~! You seem to know it all, don't you, Medi?" Roll said, walking in closer to the two Navis. Rockman and Medi took a defensive stance, not knowing what she was up to now. "This is a mini game called 'Delete Anyone That Tries to Get Between Me and Rock-kun.' The main challenge is for me to delete anyone that's close to Rock-kun so that I'll be the only one Rock-kun will have in order for Rock-kun and me to be together forever~!"

"You're really messed up," Medi commented a final time, disgusted at the lengths she's now going to in order to get Rockman.

"But Roll-chan, this isn't the way it should be," Rockman attempted at reason. "There's no point in doing this aside from causing more trouble for yourself. This won't end well."

"I see," Roll sighed, shrugging her arms up with a quick giggle. Rockman noticed small drops of tears streaming out of her blank, glazed over, lifeless green eyes. "It's just as I thought. I didn't want to believe, but the evidence just continued to tell it to me to my face."

"What?"

"Medi has already corrupted you into her way of thinking," Roll answered, grinning somberly while tears continued to fall down her face. "She's already gotten into you and turned you into her love slave. But I don't blame you as I know you weren't in control over yourself. In fact, I forgive you~!"

"Huh? I don't understand."

"She's completely lost it," Medi remarked, apprehensive of what the now insane pink Navi was up to. "Rock-kun, be careful."

Roll casted a vicious glare at the nurse Navi before slowly walking in her direction with a swaying step. Her expression slowly became maniacal. Rockman was trying to think what really happened to her as he knew that Roll wouldn't be careless enough to take in a Dark Chip. She also did not give off that same dark, foreboding aura that most Darkloids and some few rogue Navis carried, especially when they used Dark Chips. He knew well enough that she wasn't taken over by the Soul of Darkness, but something was way off about her. This was all too confusing and stressful to handle.

"There's still some time that Rock-kun can be saved, so I must get rid of you now to save him… … _Medi_!" Roll shrieked stridently.

She held her right hand up as it turned into a sharp silver machete that was strangely covered with red blood. It was the same tool that they saw that deleted those Navis. Even though Navis technically didn't bleed, that didn't mean that her machete couldn't take on a blood-soaked appearance after slaughtering through their data. Rockman was just as surprised on how his friend came into contact with a weapon like that since he obviously never saw it before in her arsenal. Roll then leapt in towards the astonished nurse Navi as she aimed her weapon straight for her chest with the clear intent to delete. Medi prepared a new Capsule to defend herself with until…

"Medi-chan, get out of the way!" Rockman yelled, quickly pushing Medi out of the way.

"I was afraid it would come to this, Rock-kun~!" Roll sang with wide demented eyes, still aiming in her path to slice apart whoever was in her way, even if that meant decapitating and deleting her own beloved blue bomber. "But know that if I can't have you, _then no one will_!"

"ROCK-KUN!" Medi cried loudly from the floor, extending a hopeless hand to save her friend and hopeful beloved.

_*WHOOSH!*_

_*SLASH!*_

* * *

**I don't intend for this to be very long, so I'm sorry if this story feels rushed or too short. I also hope you enjoy this cliffhanger if Rockman will survive this encounter or not. We'll see. And so, Yandere Roll is now on the loose. Didn't take too long, huh? She just deleted four Navis, not to mention that this is the fourth chapter now, four being a symbolic number related to death in Japan and most Asian cultures. Beware!**

**Please review!**


	5. Mad Love

**Hope you guys were able to last through the wait regarding Rockman's ultimate fate. Well, here ya go!**

* * *

_*WHOOSH!*_

_*SLASH!*_

Rockman never imagined that he would be going out like this, by the hands of his own friend, and one of his closest ones at that. So many unfulfilled queries compiled in his mind endlessly on what was going on. At this time, he didn't think he'd ever get an answer as he waited for his imminent deletion by his friend gone love-psychotic, Roll.

In reality, it never actually came…

He looked up and saw that someone else had managed to step in on time to take on Roll's attack with a Sword of his own. A very familiar friend and rival to be exact…

"Blues!"

The blue bomber Navi was certainly surprised to find him in the area coming to his aid. Before he knew it, Rockman found himself grabbed by Medi and quickly dragged away from Blues and Roll's momentary blade scuffle.

"Rock-kun, are you hurt?" Medi asked as she helped him stand.

"I'm fine, Medi-chan, thanks," Rockman replied, leaning on her momentarily for some support. "How did you find us, Blues?"

"I ran into your friend, Numberman, returning to his shop a while ago and he said you three would be at Yuugi Paati," Blues explained as he dodged a wide swipe from Roll's blade. "He also told me his concerns about Roll's strange behavior, which only confirmed my own suspicions."

"What do you mean?"

They watched their red Navi friend block every violent swipe Roll made with his Blues Sword, easily pushing her off at bay. Roll was certainly not pleased at this turn of events and has now turned her deleting intent on Blues for getting in her way in deleting Rockman.

"You two contact your Operators and then head over to the Ministry of Science," Blues commanded, holding off another hit from Roll's machete.

"But what about you?" Rockman asked, concerned about him and Roll.

"I'll lure her over there once you're gone," Blues answered back. "Enzan-sama and I know what's going on with Roll, so go, Rockman!"

"But wait, if Enzan knows, then does that mean that−?"

As if on cue once more…

Rockman was receiving contact from Netto's PET. A holographic screen with his face showed up before him, while at the same time, another screen showed up in front of Medi with Jasmine's face.

"Rockman, what's going on?" Netto asked. "Enzan found us at the park and said that something bad was going on with Roll. Meiru-chan seemed to know what was going on when he said something about strange signs of Roll's recent behavior."

"Roll-chan was acting really strangely since this morning," Rockman shared. "However, it soon became really bad when she started deleting NetNavis and Medi-chan and I had to stop her. Blues jumped in and helped us."

A screen projection from Meiru's PET appeared behind Roll as she continued fighting against Blues. Meiru herself looked extremely distressed at this turn of events.

"Roll, what are you doing?!" Meiru cried out. "Stop this!"

"I'm sorry, Meiru-chan," Roll replied as she attempted to push her blade against Blues's Sword. "But this is a personal battle for love, and Blues is in my way~!"

With surprising strength, Roll managed to push the cool red Navi off balance before knocking him to the ground with a fierce swipe. Blues rolled on the ground and managed to stay on one knee.

"That's it! I'm getting that chip out!" Meiru announced, pulling out a Cyclone Battle Chip, which incidentally, was the same Battle Chip she used in expelling the Devil Chip. Quite fitting for this situation. "I made it so that the PET is forced to replace the current chip with this new one. Enzan, call back Blues so that he won't get in the way of this."

Enzan, who was standing right next to her, nodded and looked down at his PET screen, expecting Blues to have also overheard Meiru's request. With a dutiful nod, Blues managed to leap away and joined Rockman and Medi as Meiru was going to take over.

"Now! Battle Chip, Cyclone! Slot-in!"

The red-haired girl quickly inserted the new chip, expelling the Love Love Chip out of the PET. Out of reflex, Netto caught it as it was sent flying out. He took a careful look over the picture, noticing a dark figure-like silhouette hiding within the heart's shadow, peaking its head from behind the pink heart with a glowing round eye. Feeling that it might be important for later, he kept the strange chip in his pocket.

As for Roll, she was engulfed with the Cyclone's effects as strong winds swirled around her and engulfed her entire body. Rockman and Medi smiled, seeing that the chip that was making Roll act weird was removed and the Cyclone would soon be dispelled once their friend regained her sanity.

"Glad that's over," Rockman said.

A few seconds had passed and the Cyclone was not dispelled yet. Something seemed off.

"Not quite, Rock-kun… Hee hee hee~!"

Rockman, Medi, and Blues tensed as the Cyclone suddenly became violent and was thrown right at them. Roll stood there, staring with that same glassy, love-struck look in her green eyes.

"Battle Chip, Area Steal! Slot-in!"

Netto, Enzan, and Jasmine simultaneously reacted by using the Area Steal Battle Chip to help their Navis escape from Roll's wind attack. The Navis each warped in three different directions, stationing themselves to surround Roll.

"I had a feeling that removing that chip wasn't going to be enough," Enzan said offhandedly, catching Netto's and the girls' attention. "We have to go to the Ministry of Science. Meijin-san and Hikari-hakase know what's really going on. Let our Navis lure Roll there."

"Wait!" Meiru interrupted, holding up her PET. "I'm going to try plugging Roll out."

"Uh−!"

Before Enzan could say something, Meiru pressed down on the log out button as hard as she could to pull her Navi back. However, it appeared to have done nothing. The red-haired girl became worried and clicked on the button several more times, but to no avail, Roll did not reappear back in the PET.

"Sorry about that, Meiru-chan~!" Roll's voice sang out from the PET. "I didn't want you to get unnecessarily involved in this, though I was thankful for you lending me Cyclone, but I just disabled my link to your PET for the time being so that I wouldn't be interrupted in getting my Rock-kun. After all…" The pink Navi took a dramatic pause. "… I don't want to come up there and delete you too~."

"… Aah!"

Meiru stumbled back, breathing heavily from the implied threat. Before she could trip over her feet backwards, Netto caught her and helped her stay stable standing.

"Like I said, we need to get to the Ministry of Science now," Enzan repeated austerely. "Our Navis should be able to hold off Roll and bring her there once after we've arrived."

The white-and-black-haired boy then led the way, followed by Netto, Jasmine, and Meiru, leaving Rockman, Medi, and Blues to take care of Roll and prevent her from causing more damage in the general area of Internet City. As they were running, Meiru was the first to speak up.

"Enzan, how did you find out about Roll's situation?"

"Blues shared with me that he saw her yesterday making some transaction with a shady Navi," Enzan explained. "Once Roll was gone, Blue interrogated him and found out that he was a former Hell Navi, though he claimed he supposedly no longer does any more business in the black net market. He also claimed to have been completely honest on what he sold to her and what it was supposed to do."

"The Love Love Chip?" Meiru mentioned.

"That's what he claimed it was, according to Blues," Enzan continued. "He related the same information to Blues on what he told Roll, in which it was supposed to amplify the amorous prospects of her personality."

"I guess that part worked," Meiru commented to the side in a deadpan tone.

"But how does that explain Roll going crazy and almost deleting Rockman?" Netto asked.

"I did some research on this 'Love Love Chip,' but I came up with nothing, so I turned to Hikari-hakase and Meijin-san for answers the night before," Enzan replied. "They said they'll have the answers in the morning."

Wasting no further time in talking about what's going on with Roll and how to stop her, the four of them were able to arrive at the Ministry of Science within ten to fifteen minutes. Despite being a bit out of breath, this current crisis needed to be taken cared of immediately.

"Papa! Meijin-san!" Netto yelled upon barging in the central lab.

"No need for formalities, I've told you by now," Meijin automatically said before facing the four youth at the door. "So all four of you are here together? I thought it was just going to be Enzan-kun."

"They also deserve a right to know," Enzan pointed out. "Did you find anything about the Love Love Chip?"

"We did," Yuuichiro answered, stepping forward. "Though the answer we have for you is something none of you would ever expect."

"What do you mean?" Jasmine asked.

"First off, do any of you still have that chip?" Yuuichiro inquired.

Meiru became alert and thought that she stored it upon her person upon expelling the chip. However, Netto already went forward and revealed that he saved the chip after catching it from its expulsion. Something about the chip caught Meiru's eye, more specifically, the image.

"Wait, Netto, are you sure that's the right one?" Meiru intervened.

"Huh? This came flying out of your PET," Netto answered as he, Enzan, and Jasmine were confused on what she was talking about.

"Please give me the chip," Meiru requested.

"Ok."

Netto did so and placed the Love Love Chip into the palm of his childhood friend's hand. She inspected it closely as it did appear to be the same one she used on Roll last night. However, something appeared to be different about it.

"This shadow wasn't there before," Meiru revealed. "I mean the Navi figure shadow within the heart's shadow. It looks so creepy with that stare."

"This is where I come in to explain," Yuuichiro announced. "I'm afraid that the image was slightly altered to hide its true nature, probably for the Hell Navi to be able to sell it off to Roll in the first place."

"Geez, not this again!" Meiru groaned.

"You needn't worry about that Hell Navi, by the way, as Blues had already disposed of him after the interrogation," Enzan added.

"Anyway, as I was saying, the name 'Love Love Chip' is its informal name," Yuuichiro continued. "Its official name is the Yan Love Chip, otherwise better known as the Mad Love Chip."

"'Mad Love Chip'?" Netto, Meiru, Jasmine, and Enzan repeated incredulously.

"That doesn't sound comforting," Netto commented additionally.

"It doesn't get better than that, Netto," Yuuichiro said. "The Yan Love Chip was actually first developed here in the Ministry of Science years ago for the purpose of helping Navis develop more human personalities. And as its name suggested, it focused on creating the aspects of romance in a NetNavi's personality. At first during beta testing, it had appeared to be successful in allowing Navis to learn how to fall in love, and this was before advanced programing came into play to automatically allow Navis to learn how to create relationships with one another."

"But then, what happened?" Netto asked, wanting his father to get to the point.

"An unforeseen bug caused it to slightly deviate from its set path. In addition to creating emotions of romance, it also brought about negative feelings of jealousy, obsession, and spitefulness to alarmingly intense levels. That's how the creepy staring shadow appeared in the image, to answer your question, Meiru-chan. It caused the Navis that were tested on to go insane whenever they experience a form of heartbreak and rejection from whoever they were in love with. The chip had rewritten their personality coding while they were still under its effects, changing them to the point that they've become remorseless, obsessed murderers that perceive anything that stands in the way of their object of affection as things to be deleted immediately, and I do mean _anything_. It was like they were stuck in an infinite loop of darkness that made them delete anything that got in their way. We had to shut down the project and prevent any of these now dubbed Mad Love Chips from getting into the hands of the public."

"I don't understand how it's still in effect after being ejected from my PET," Meiru spoke up. "Roll was changed before by the Devil Chip, but was returned to normal when I added a new chip into the slot."

"Basically how the Yan Love Chip works is that it acts as an insertion instead of a temporary join," Yuuichiro explained. "Once in, the chip inserts its whole programming into the data of the receiving Navi. It's now a part of Roll and has gradually altered her personality overtime, especially during circumstances where she experiences heartbreak. Even if the chip was removed a second after its insertion, the chip's programming would already have been injected into her and it will still take in effect sooner or later."

"Then how are we supposed to stop it from taking over Roll?!" Meiru demanded. "She only had it for less than a day and she nearly beheaded Rockman just because he wasn't giving her enough attention!"

"But you also have to take into consideration that she was already in love with Rockman from the start," Enzan pointed out. "And with Medi in town, her involvement only made it worse for Roll by accelerating her thoughts of jealousy and obsession for him."

"And how do you know that for sure? You're going on an assumption right now. Roll seemed fine with her current relationship with Rockman until after the chip."

"Er, try checking Roll's homepage?" Netto casually suggested, to which Meiru was a bit skeptic, but nonetheless obliged.

"Hm, you're lucky I learned how to do remote desktop from my PET to my PC at home," Meiru replied, quickly connecting to her PC after a few button pushes. "So, you said to check Roll's homepage, huh?"

Meiru was able to project the screen of her and Roll's homepage in front of everyone. The red-haired girl certainly didn't expect a huge collage of images detailing Rockman at various angles and situations from the past. They looked like they were taken directly from Roll's eyes, aka point of view, most likely saved images from her visual databanks. It certainly got ridiculous when it came to pictures that included Medi, in which she was basically scribbled out in black marker in most or drawn with the "Devil" features in red. All of which had appeared to be the handiwork of a temperamental two-year old.

Everyone instantly sweatdropped.

"Uh… huh," Netto grunted.

"Oh… right," Meiru relented awkwardly. "… Those weren't there before, I swear! She must've gotten out of sleep mode earlier and redecorated the home page a bit before I woke up."

"Do you think really she got up early to make that?" Jasmine questioned.

"I don't even know anymore…"

"Fortunately, after witnessing some moments in the past, we discovered that this infinite loop of insanity comes to a complete halt and the Navi's original personality is restored upon meeting one of two conditions," Meijin resumed. "However, the price of stopping the Mad Love Chip's programming is very high."

"What are they?" Jasmine asked anxiously.

With a heavy sigh, Meijin managed to gather the will to share the solutions.

"The first condition… is if the rival of the Navi under the influence of the Yan Love Chip is deleted," Meijin said.

"Rival? As in 'love rival'?" Jasmine asked for clarification, to which the scientist nodded.

"In Roll's case, the love rival registered in her current programming would be Medi," Meijin said bluntly.

"WHAT?!" Jasmine cried out, nearly on the verge of tears.

Netto offered an arm to her, to which she instead opted for giving the surprised Net Savior a back-breaking hug.

"I'm not pleased about this either, but the second solution is not going to be pleasant as well," Meijin sighed.

"Please don't tell me that Roll would have to be deleted," Meiru pleaded.

"Disregarding the option to delete Roll if necessary, the second solution would be if she deletes the object of her affection herself in her madness," Meijin announced. "In short, that would fall on Rockman. According to what you kids have said, had she succeeded in deleting him, then the effects of the Mad Love Chip would stop and her original personality would be restored. However, unlike with most chips, the Mad Love Chip would allow Roll to retain her memories while under its corrupting influence."

It was Netto's turn to blanch into speechlessness. Jasmine hugged him even harder after hearing that. Tears were crawling from the sides of his eyes mainly because of how tight the Choinese girl had him in her arms, more than losing his brother Navi just for Roll to turn back to normal. Meiru spoke out again, also on the verge of tears.

"There's got to be another way!" Meiru reasoned. "One that doesn't involve deleting any of our Navis! Plus, if Roll were to find out that she deleted Rockman by _her own hands_ once she's back to normal, she'll be so devastated! She'll _never_ forgive herself!"

"It's bad enough that I had Blues purposely hold back just he wouldn't delete Roll by accident," Enzan said. "But if we don't do something, everything around Roll will be destroyed regardless."

"Enzan-sama, are you at the Ministry of Science?" Blues's voice suddenly called out from the IPC vice-president's PET.

"Blues, we just arrived a few minutes ago," Enzan replied. "Report, what's going on from your end?"

"Rockman, Medi, and I just barely lured in Roll here, but not without making sure she didn't go after anyone else that was in our way," Blues explained. "We were unable to prevent a few casualties that fell into Roll's path of destruction in the city. In addition, we're all tired out from keeping her on us as a result."

"It can't be helped," Enzan said. "Blues, you, Rockman, and Medi work together in restraining her while we try to come up with something to stop and repair her. Try to minimalize as much damage as possible."

"On it, Enzan-sama," Blues responded before cutting communication.

"So now what do we do?" Netto suggested.

"Hikari-hakase and I will research what information we have left on the Mad Love Chip while all four of you tend to your Navis," Meijin directed.

"We should be able to develop a Vaccine Chip that should undo the changes caused by the Mad Love Chip and restore Roll's default personality," Yuuichiro continued. "However, we're going to need some time. I'm afraid to ask this much out of all four of you since your Navis are getting tired, but you need to continue stalling Roll until we get the Correction Program running."

"Don't worry, Meijin-san! Papa!" Netto declared, accompanied by the eager faces of his three friends. "We've got this, right guys?"

"Yeah! We'll make sure not to lose anyone today!" Jasmine exclaimed.

"This will be kept as orderly as possible, I promise!" Enzan added.

"As her Operator, I'll take responsibility to do my best to fix this and bring Roll back to her senses, so count on it!" Meiru affirmed resolutely.

With the tasks on who was doing what now settled, all company within the central hub immediately went to work. Yuuichiro, Meijin, and a few other expert scientists in the room pulled up all the documented files regarding the Yan Love Chip to begin making the Vaccine Chip while Netto, Enzan, Jasmine, and Meiru supported Rockman, Blues, and Medi against Roll.

And so the race of time and saving Roll was on…

* * *

**This story was leaning more on drama rather than all out slaughtering horror, which is why this fic is classified as such. Plus, Navis can't bleed and the only display of blood was indicated last chapter with Roll's Mad-Love-given machete after deleting a few Navis. Almost fitting that the true name of that chip is "Yan Love."**

**Oh, yandere characters, given some sharp tool or weapon to slice and behead. It's interesting and unsettling at the same time, at least under fictional pretenses. In real life, though, such individuals would be locked away in asylums. Well, that's enough rambling from me.**

**Please review!**


	6. Medi to the Rescue!

**This should spice things up. Enjoy!**

* * *

"We all heard what Netto-kun and the others are going to do now, so let's do our best also to bring Roll-chan back to her senses," Rockman announced. "Medi-chan! Blues! Are you ready?"

"I'm with you all the way!" Medi exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Blues grunted, smiling subtly.

"It's inconvenient that all of you are conspiring to take Rock-kun away from me," Roll said, walking forward menacingly as she withdrew her machete for her bow. "You leave me no choice but to delete you all~! Tee hee!"

"Roll-chan, you've got to fight this!" Rockman pleaded. "This isn't you at all!"

"Fight what, Rock-kun~? You~?" Roll giggled, aiming her Roll Arrow at the center of his face. "If it's the only way for _us_, then so be it~!"

"It's no use, Rock-kun," Medi reasoned. "She's too deep in that chip's programmed madness for words to reach now."

"More like her personality has been completely rewritten like how I once was when I was a Darkloid," Blues explained. "Rockman, I'm afraid we have no choice but to subdue her into unconsciousness in order to capture her."

"But… I just can't fight Roll-chan like this," Rockman argued. "The problem is that she's not even herself right now. It just wouldn't be right."

"Rockman, can you hear me?" Meiru's voice echoed into their area.

"Um, yeah," Rockman replied.

"Listen, don't hold back in taking Roll down if you must," Meiru requested. "Even you know that this is what she wanted. I don't want to have to go through another repeat of the Devil Chip incident again, so please, do whatever it is you have to do with Blues and Medi! Understand?"

"I understand," Rockman said regretfully. "And I'm sorry about this."

"Me too, but we can't dwell on this now…"

"Rockman, let's get into gear!" Netto's voice took over.

"Right!" Rockman responded.

"None of you can't win!" Roll shouted furiously. "None of you even understand what love is or what love feels like! Roll Arrow!"

"Battle Chip, MetGuard! Slot-in!"

Netto quickly used a Battle Chip that produced a giant Mettaur helmet, covering Rockman at the front and blocking a small barrage of Arrows that Roll sent his way. The first Arrow stayed pinned on the helmet while the rest bounced off and disappeared. Medi walked around the MetGuard to see the aftermath of Roll's attack. The nurse Navi was quick to notice a particularly new detail on the heart-shaped arrowhead.

"A broken heart design on your Roll Arrow?" Medi remarked. "You've really got some emotional issues to work out."

"Medi-chan, watch out!" Rockman yelled, pushing her down as another heartbroken Roll Arrow sailed over them.

"Battle Chip, Neo Variable Sword! Slot-in!"

Blues charged forward with his newly equipped Sword, courtesy of Enzan. Roll fired off several more Roll Arrows. The red Navi was able to avoid most of them in one leap before resorting to destroying a few unavoidable Arrows that flew into his blind spots.

"No more fooling around," Blues grumbled, resuming his path towards Roll.

At the meantime, Roll prepared another set of her Arrows as she also took careful aim at the incoming Navi. She fired a tentative shot that barely missed Blues at the side. In retaliation, Blues swiped down and damaged Roll's bow from the top with the Neo Variable Sword.

"Ow~!" Roll cried, disengaging her bow and getting her right hand back.

"It looks like you can't fire any more Arrows now," Blue said, attempting to slash at her a few more times. "At least I didn't have to rely on Program Advance to take you down."

Roll, however, was resilient, as well as pretty quick on her feet. She sidestepped a few times before having to duck from a horizontal swipe. Blues had managed to corner her to the ground and was about to use an overhead slash move.

"Don't underestimate me~! Heart Flash!"

The pink Navi took the opportunity to send a barrage of smaller hearts, which coincidentally all shared the broken-heart pattern as her Roll Arrows did, right into Blues's abdomen. The sudden attack threw him back and unable to strike.

"Damn, she's tricky," Blues commented. "But she's right. I can't underestimate her like this anymore. Hmm, I wonder why she doesn't fight like this often instead of relying heavily on Rockman to help her out."

"Roll Whip!"

"Aah!"

Before Blues could react, he discovered Roll's antennae from her helmet immediately ensnaring him, bounding his arms within as well to prevent the use of his Sword attacks. Her antennae retracted and pulled him closer. As much as he hated to admit it, his carelessness over Roll because of the obvious power difference from the past has gotten him captured and placed completely under her mercy.

_*SLAP!*_

It was certainly uncommon to witness a loud slap during a battle, but Roll apparently had no reservations of delivering an open-handed one against Blues's face.

"That one was for constantly stealing Rock-kun's attention from me," Roll said threateningly.

_She's really lost it,_ Blues thought, bearing through the pain of his sore cheek.

_*SLAP!*_

The pink Navi dared a backhand slap this time on Blues's other cheek.

"This second one was for breaking my first bow," Roll continued.

"F-First?" Blues coughed.

"Of course~!" Roll exclaimed in a suddenly cheerful mood. "I have a backup bow for my Roll Arrow attack in case the first one is destroyed in battle." Her mood changed drastically again into intense hate. "But before I show you…"

_*WHAM!*_

Blues managed to hold back a huge, high-pitched yelp of pain, considering where Roll's foot struck him below… _hard_. He was also fortunate that his helmet shades also concealed his watering eyes completely so that no one would see his fully contorted expression. This act that won't be named, but is obviously known had just left everyone speechless, stunned, and rather uncomfortable.

Rockman was cowering, concealing his lower half behind Medi for obvious reasons.

Medi looked rather affronted on how brutal Roll was.

And as for the humans watching the scuffle on a larger screen…

Netto's eyes were widened enough that they could fall out.

Meiru blushed heavily and was overly embarrassed, covering her eyes with one hand and hoping to wake up from this nightmare.

Enzan placed on hand over his forehead, displeased and equally embarrassed by the humiliation of his Navi.

Jasmine just looked on curiously, mouth slightly agape.

Both Yuuichiro and Meijin pretended not to have noticed and were trying too hard to look at different directions.

Even the scientists working with them heard, specifically the males, were momentarily shocked and unable to continue working while at the same time, closed their legs as tightly as they could.

"Poor Blues," Jasmine was the first to speak up after that moment.

Netto whistled innocently while inconspicuously covering his front with a hand while Meiru took a new interest towards the wall next to her. Enzan then coughed while quietly muttering something about how Navis can't reproduce anyway while trying to control his own embarrassed blush down. After all, Navi or not, Roll _did_ strike _that_ part of the human male anatomy, specifically that of his own Navi's.

"And that… well, someone needed to kick you down a peg or two, arrogant jerk," Roll scoffed, having her antennae release her cringing captive.

Blues collapsed on the floor limply. Though despite the lingering pain, he prepared for the moment that Roll would let him go and was able to call out his Sword. Unfortunately with her new personality, the pink Navi spared no opportunity to retaliate and had also reproduced her bow while aiming her arrow at the center of Blues's crest.

"Roll-chan, don't do it!" Rockman called out.

"It's useless, Blues~!" Roll giggled darkly, clearly ignoring the blue Navi. "If you try to attack me, you'll be deleted instantly. And if you try to wait me out, then you'll be deleted regardless. As fun as it was making you suffer, you're a huge obstacle in my way to Rock-kun and must be _take cared of immediately_~!"

"Battle Chip, Rock Cube! Slot-in!"

Enzan acted quickly and produced three large Rock Cubes over Roll and Blues. Seeing the incoming objects about to fall and crush her, Roll sent her Arrow up and destroyed one while the other two fell nearby. Blues, at the meantime, seized the opportunity and escaped from Roll by, ahem, rolling away as he didn't have the strength to fully stand up yet.

"Ugh! How did I get distracted by that?!" Roll complained, quickly sending another Arrow towards the fleeing red Navi.

"Charge Shot!"

A large energy blast intervened and immediately disintegrated the Roll Arrow before colliding into the ground in front of Roll, causing digital smoke and debris to rise up. Rockman had leapt in for Blues while the latter was being treated by Medi.

"So, you really are going to raise your Buster against me… _Rock-kun_~?" Roll cooed, pulling off a girly pose.

"You're not leaving any other options for us to take, Roll-chan," Rockman said, pointing his Buster at her. "While I may be hesitant in fighting you, that doesn't mean I'll let you harm my friends."

"Oh, Rock-kun… So selfless and kind… Putting the lives of your friends above your own… Above _mine_…!"

Roll fired off several more Arrows while Rockman easily shot them down. Seeing as that tactic wasn't going anywhere, she switched her weapon into her sharp machete soaked in digital crimson blood and ran forward.

"Battle Chip, Long Sword! Slot-in!"

Rockman's Buster was replaced with the Long Sword with Netto's assistance. After taking a begrudging moment to himself, the blue Navi also charged forward and clashed blades with his psychotic friend. He could see in her eyes that she didn't have the same sadistic malice as she did as Devil Roll, but rather a corrupted form of affectionate obsession that took over her sweet rationale instead. Like before, he really didn't want to have to fight her, but he had to prepare for moments like these if history were to repeat itself wherein she was under a corrupt influence.

At the meantime as their blades continued to collide, Medi stepped up to the plate after healing Blues.

"Rock-kun, I have an idea!" Medi yelled out. "If we can manage to capture and bind her, then I could possibly try to fix Roll's data with my healing abilities."

"Easier… said… than… done!" Rockman replied, blocking every slash attempt Roll made.

"I promise I won't let anything happen to you, Rock-kun," Medi said determinedly.

Roll stopped when she noticed that Medi was behind her at a fair distance while Rockman stepped back that same distance. She smiled lifelessly at the irony of it all as tears streamed down her face again.

"Seeing you two together sickens me to the CPU core," Roll commented, conjuring her bow in her free hand aimed at Medi's direction. "I think I'll first tear Medi apart limb by limb before having your head _all to myself_… Rock-kun~!"

Rockman was quick to realize her intent and charged forward with the Long Sword. Roll fired a Roll Arrow at Medi, who quickly countered with a Medi Capsule. The resulting digital debris clouded her from sight, allowing Rockman to overtake Roll and protect the nurse Navi from any more ambushes.

The blue Navi attempted a swipe, but Roll managed to evade the attack.

"Medi-chan, now!" Rockman commanded.

"Chemical Flash!"

Medi released a couple of Capsules in front of Roll that exploded in a bright flash. Roll flinched from the aftershocks and the blinding light. She then felt two arms holding up her own, keeping her bound in a nelson hold and unable to escape. She then realized that this was a diversion as the flash died down.

"Let go of me!" Roll demanded.

"It's no good, she's still struggling," Rockman said, doing his best to hold her down.

"Then let's add a sedative," Medi suggested, appearing in front of Roll. "Healing Pulse!"

Light energy began to flow out from Roll's body and into Medi's hands. The nurse Navi directed a second flow of energy to Rockman so that, in addition to her, he would also be restored in energy. Roll appeared to be falling exhausted as a result of the draining, evident with her inability to keep her head held up.

"That should be enough, Medi-chan," Rockman said. "Thank you."

"I'm glad that we came up with the plan despite not sharing what we both were going to do, Rock-kun," Medi replied. "I guess that means we can communicate heart-to-heart now."

"Actually, we did already talk about the plan. It was when you proposed fixing Roll's data that got me to adapt to whatever situation we would wind up in. All we had to do was capture and bind her, like right now, and leave the rest to you. You're incredible, you know?"

"I… eh…"

Medi couldn't help gush over the praise from the Navi she knew she was falling for hard. Though he completely missed the point about the heart-to-heart comment, his sincere honesty easily won over her forgiveness. Plus, she still owed him for the ghost mini game incident back at Yuugi Paati. She could understand how and why Roll fell in love with Rockman and couldn't really blame her for going to extremes for his acceptance, especially since it was the Mad Love Chip that was making her crazy in the first place.

Just as she placed her hands on Roll's crest to begin the procedure…

"… Gotcha~!"

Both Rockman and Medi gasped. Roll did not fall into unconsciousness. Before long, the pink Navi brought her right foot up and back-kicked Rockman's knee as hard as she could. Rockman was forced to release her from the sudden pain, allowing her to wreak havoc among them once more.

"Rock-kun!" Medi cried, being forced to step back as Roll charged her with her machete held high in the air.

"Now, delete!" Roll shrieked, sending her blade down.

"Medi-chan! No!" Rockman yelled on the ground.

A whooshing sound was heard, followed with a pair of rapid footsteps. Right as Roll was about to cleave Medi in half, Blues jumped in and tackled against Roll from the side. The direction of Roll's swipe was thrown off. Instead of a clean vertical cut, Roll barely managed to slash against Medi's left arm. The resulting gash appeared as fragmented data coming apart on the nurse Navi's arm while Roll's machete gained a bloodier appearance after tasting another victim.

Rockman quickly recovered and went to her to check on her. He knelt by her side and held her head up with a hand.

"You're okay, Rock-kun?" Medi asked weakly.

"I'm the one who should be asking you that," Rockman responded, worried.

"The wound's not fatal, but I do need to get treated if I'm to last a bit longer," Medi remarked, attempting to move her damaged arm. She winced, causing Rockman to get her to stop. "I guess the plan wasn't as successful as I hoped…"

"I didn't even know Roll-chan had that much energy left," Rockman pointed out.

"My love is limitless~!" Roll declared as she was engaged into another blade fight against Blues. "That wretched Medi can't drain me dry no matter what, Rock-kun!"

"You need to plug out, Medi-chan," Rockman resumed. "Blues and I will hold her down until Netto-kun and the others have the Vaccine Chip."

"But… who knows how long that'll take," Medi argued. "And I'm not leaving you alone with her! I promised!"

"And I can't risk letting you get deleted," Rockman said in return. "We're not going to lose anyone. We'll bring Roll-chan back."

"Rock-kun…" Medi beckoned him to lean closer. "… I'd do anything to help you… But I must be here… for you. I'll never leave you."

"We won't be apart, I promise you this," Rockman replied.

As emotions became tense, Rockman's crest began to glow. The crest design on Medi's nurse cap also resonated momentarily before her whole body glowed similarly. The outline of her Navi crest highlighted on her chest, similarly to how it looked at her older design in her early days with Jasmine. Roll and Blues stopped to see what was going on and where that new bright light was coming from.

"I feel warm," Medi commented, looking up with wide eyes to Rockman. "Are you… healing me?"

"No, this is something else," Rockman answered knowingly.

The two Navis continued to stare into each other's eyes for a short moment. As if on instinct, they slowly closed the gap between their heads, leaning closer and closer to one another until their lips made contact. The light intensified until their figures couldn't be seen any more, consuming them as a new power was born.

Blues had an idea of what was going on as the light started to die down and he was able to see at that point again. He saw that Medi was back on her feet. As for Rockman, the red Navi held a small smile. His friend and rival never ceased to amaze him. The glassy green pupils in Roll's eyes dilated in dread from witnessing the whole thing.

Medi appeared to be surprised as her arm wound was completely healed, but was even more surprised to see Rockman appearing… like her?

"Rock-kun…! Is this…?" Medi was about to ask.

"Yeah," Rockman nodded.

"Soul Unison, Medi Soul!" Netto's voice announced. "Way to go, Rockman! This is awesome that you were able to pull it off at this time!"

Rockman had taken a similar appearance to Medi as a result of Soul Unison, mainly her white and blue colors, helmet and body armor design, while keeping his original customized elements like his Navi crest design and his hairstyle as examples. He even had a large, narrow pack nodule on his back in place of his previous jetpack. Medi knew that Rockman was capable of Soul Unison with certain Navis, but she never did imagine having the privilege of being compatible with him and lending him her power.

"… You two… kissed," Roll murmured, head held down darkly.

Medi blushed mildly upon realizing that she was right. Their connection of Soul Unison was united completely upon a kiss. That was certainly a new way to give Rockman her powers since she didn't have a visible crest like he did to automatically link with him.

"Roll-chan…" Rockman attempted to say, but…

"IIIIIIEEEEAAAAAAAAAA!"

It was the loudest shriek Roll had given off so far, holding her head in deep anguish. Rockman, Medi, and Blues were forced to cover their ears while everyone in the Ministry of Science observing the fight was taken aback. Her scream was not as intense and destructive as baby Trill's cries, but it was certainly irksome nonetheless. Roll looked back at Rockman and Medi with no emotion. Her dulled, glassy green eyes were wide and ravenous for destruction in order to fill the gaping hole they concealed.

"What's going on now?" Medi demanded.

"… I thought there would've been even a small chance to save Rock-kun from destruction… but now you've TAINTED him beyond repair… _Medi_," Roll hissed threateningly.

Her machete suddenly extended to the length of a Long Sword while gaining some more broadness. With a quick flick, droplets of data blood flew off and disintegrated upon landing on the floor.

"All of you! Watch out!" Meijin's voice warned. "I have no doubt that the witnessing the Soul Unison between Rockman and Medi has provoked the negative side effects of the Yan Love Chip once more. Roll's rationale has been completely overwritten. You have to stop her at all costs now or else you'll be deleted!"

"_You home-wreckers… are DEAD_!"

Following that tormented wail, Roll charged in on Rockman and Medi with the pure intent of severing their body parts into binary pieces of data until ones and zeroes would be all that's left of them.

* * *

**I don't think I've seen Rockman obtain Medi Soul in the anime, even though he can have it in the games. In any case, it seemed appropriate to do so here. ****Anyway, we're getting close to the end here.**

**Please review!**


	7. Gamble

**We're getting close to the end, just a few more chapters left. Yeah, I'm sad this is coming to a close, but honestly, I don't know how else to prolong it. I probably could go on with Roll slaughtering more Navis and bringing unimaginable destruction to the Internet, but I'm not that much of a fic aspirer. Oh, well…**

* * *

"_You home-wreckers… are DEAD!_"

Her final shriek revealed how very little of her original restrained personality had remained. The only part of Roll's former self anyone could see at this point was her love for Rockman, which was, over the course of one day, brought up to and beyond eleven by a defective personality chip.

"Quick! Scatter!" Rockman commanded.

Both he and Medi leapt in different directions to confound Roll, seeing now that it didn't matter to her which one she sought to end permanently. Of course, she chose to go after Medi in the end.

"Battle Chip, Wide Sword! Slot-in!"

Jasmine gave her Navi a Wide Sword to use to fight off against Roll's larger blade. It felt a bit awkward for Medi to hold a Sword, much less use one, since she was more accustomed to using her long-ranged Capsules and healing abilities.

"I'm not really good with fighting with swords, but I guess now's a good time to learn if I really want to be there for Rock-kun," Medi remarked.

Roll charged in with an overhead thrust. Having observed the sword styles of Rockman and Blues in the past, Medi had the idea of the basics of sword fighting on mind, though having her body properly function with those scattered ideas was another story. Reflexively, she was able to defend against Roll's reckless strike before the pink Navi jumped back and attempted a horizontal sweep. Medi managed a backflip away from her attack.

Knowing that she needed to be on the offensive this time, Medi made a wide diagonal strike in which Roll easily avoided. The pink Navi did not hesitate to strike back by confounding her victim with multiple swipes to block. Medi was forced back to the defensive while evading fatal swipes from Roll's machete. Due to her inexperience, she stumbled and Roll seized the opportunity to break Medi's Wide Sword apart with one strong swing.

"Medi Capsule!"

A Capsule was flung and bounced along the ground, coming in front of the two female Navis. Medi had enough foresight to know what was about to happen and leapt away. With Roll still behind, the Capsule exploded brilliantly. Medi retreated to the one that threw that Capsule.

"Incredible! You have all my powers at your disposal now!" Medi exclaimed, referring to her partner's latest Soul Unison.

"Yeah, Medi Soul is definitely useful and versatile," Rockman added. "I even have your excellent healing abilities. I'll definitely have to make full use of this Soul Unison in the future."

"Really? If that's the case, maybe you wouldn't mind helping my data 'flow more efficiently' with your new Medi Soul?" Medi asked rather alluringly, making the implications clear in Rockman's mind that prompted a stunned expression accompanied with a mild blush as a result.

"Well… um… I only use Soul Unison… for, um… battles," Rockman reasoned weakly.

"Not even for this one time, Rock-kun~?" Medi teased. "I really enjoy your relaxing touch, and it would really help me out."

"Eh… um…"

"Don't think of it as having to pay me back for healing you. Think of it as something we _both_ can enjoy. ~"

"… … Well…"

"Hey, if you two are done flirting, we've got a bit of a crisis on our hands," Blues interrupted, giving a deadpan look to the two Navis.

"Oh… right," Medi replied sheepishly while Rockman blinked emptily a few times.

At the meantime, Roll gave off another furious shriek and switched her bloody machete for her bow. There was no doubt that earlier display of public affection agitated her once more.

"Enzan-sama, I think we have no choice now," Blues announced aloud. "As long as her Operator doesn't mind, this should be sufficient enough to weaken and knock her out for capture."

"Do what you have to do," Meiru's voice replied.

"You heard her, Blues," Enzan took over. "Are you ready?"

"At your command," Blues responded.

"What's he going to do?" Medi asked Rockman.

"It's going to be big," Rockman explained. "I think he's going for Program Advance… Oh, boy…"

The blue bomber Navi's prediction was true as back in the Ministry of Science, Enzan had the three necessary Battle Chips to enact one of his favored powerful tactics. And of course, he and Blues specialized in Sword attacks.

"Program Advance! Sword, Wide Sword, Long Sword!"

"Enzan, wait! Isn't that overkill?!" Netto pointed out.

It was too late to do anything now as the white-and-black-haired boy had slotted-in those three Battle Chips. Back at the Cyber World, Blues held his hands high as he powered up this particular Program Advance known as the Dream Sword. A sinister gleam sparkled in one of Roll's glassy eyes.

"_Gotcha_~!" Roll giggled, firing a Roll Arrow at the powerful Sword forming in the red Navi's hands.

"Dream Swor−!"

The Roll Arrow flew in quickly and unexpectedly pierced through the Dream Sword before Blues had a chance to swing down and unleash its power. The Arrow reemerged out of the Program Advance with what appeared to be the regular Sword Battle Chip that was captured at the tip of its brokenhearted-shaped head.

"This can't be!" Enzan gasped.

In a matter of moments, the Dream Sword broke apart in Blues's hands and drenched him in cyber energy before completely disappearing altogether. The red Navi, along with Rockman and Medi, were in shock of a Program Advance being easily dismantled prior to fulfilling its function.

"Roll Arrow's true effects where it's capable of damaging and even destroying Battle Chips," Meiru explained. "Somehow, she was able to pinpoint one of the three Battle Chips that made up the Program Advance and attacked it directly in order to disrupt the Dream Sword."

"Whoa, that is pretty amazing," Netto commented. "Why hasn't she been this intuitive in battle before?"

"Does it matter to ask why now?" Meiru shot back, giving her childhood crush a deadpan glance.

"Except now, Roll is capable of handling about anything we throw at her, especially since she knows we're trying to hold back on her," Enzan argued, ignoring Meiru.

"And how do you know that the Dream Sword wouldn't delete her on accident?" Netto shot back.

Distressed at the current situation against Roll, as well as the typical rising tensions between Netto and Enzan, Meiru turned to where Yuuichiro, Meijin, and a few scientists were working on the Vaccine Chip for the Mad Love Chip.

"Hikari-hakase, how is the Vaccine Chip doing?" Meiru pleaded.

"I believe we've almost got it, Meiru-chan," Yuuichiro answered. "The Correction Program is still difficult to debug and compile perfectly since we didn't save enough info for curing the negative effects of the Mad Love Chip. You need to continue trying to restrain Roll. In theory, this should be able to reverse the changes that the chip placed on her."

"Don't worry so much, Meiru," Jasmine reassured. "Now that Rockman has Medi's abilities, he and Medi should be able to heal Roll at an even pace."

Meiru simply smiled back and nodded. She certainly felt like a fool for getting angry and somewhat jealous at the kind foreign girl for wanting Netto's attention since she was going to stay for a few more days before flying back to Choina, especially since she was also sacrificing her and her Navi's time to save Roll. Not only was Jasmine a talented healer, but also a reliable Operator capable of Cross Fusion aside from her, Netto, and Enzan in the room. They, along with a few more, have been through worse things together, such as Duo, Cache, and the Cyber Beasts, after all.

"Rockman, Papa said that the Vaccine Chip is almost done," Netto relayed. "You and Medi do your best to wear down Roll and if at all possible, repair her personality data with your enhanced healing powers."

"Got it, Netto-kun," Rockman said, now looking at Medi. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah!"

Both Medi and Rockman, who was still equipped with Medi Soul, charged in synchronously side-by-side towards Roll, who had reengaged into another blade fight against Blues. The red Navi noticed the incoming double team and graciously leapt back to let them take over business.

"Double Medi Capsule!"

Rockman and Navi tossed their Capsules at both sides of Roll, catching her in two inescapable explosions of digital debris. Roll was forced to defend from the doubled power of the Medi Capsule attacks.

"Excellent work, Medi-chan," Rockman called out, heading to one side while Medi went the opposite way. "We've got her now!"

"Yeah!" Medi nodded, preparing her next attack in conjunction to the blue Navi's plan.

"Double Chemical Flash!"

The Navi pair unleashed several more Capsules that erupted into bright flares that were more than enough to momentarily blind Roll. Even Blues had to cover his own protected eyes with an arm from the synchronous and powerful Chemical Flashes.

Rockman and Medi were about to close in until they discovered a few Roll Arrows speedily flying out of the bright Chemical Flashes in all directions. The pink Navi was apparently shooting blindly as a desperate measure of defense.

"Battle Chip, Elec Sword! Slot-in!"

Netto bestowed the electrical Sword upon Rockman's right hand. Rockman then issued a nod to Medi, communicating to her to back him up once he would charge in. At the meantime, Roll fired another barrage of aimless Roll Arrows. Rockman dove in through the first blind spot of the Arrows he was able to find, destroying a few in order to safely make it through.

The Chemical Flash was dying down and Roll was regaining her sight. In her momentary ceasefire, Rockman launched a sneak attack and swiped at her second bow, severing it apart for good. The pink Navi replaced her destroyed bow with her machete, and with a furious scream, struck back. Rockman was able to block the machete swipe, but did not expect a side kick into his stomach region.

"Rock-kun!" Medi cried, throwing a couple of her Capsules at Roll in retaliation.

_*SWIPE!*_

Roll quickly dismantled the Capsules before they could take effect and explode on her.

"_Broken Heart Flash_!"

With her free hand, the pink Navi unleashed a barrage of broken hearts at Medi, who countered with another pair of her Capsules. The Capsules had destroyed the first wave on contact, but a second wave of the attack persisted on. Medi was out of options to fight back at the moment.

Fortunately, another pair of Medi Capsules thrown by Rockman had intervened and disrupted the second wave of Roll's attack, saving the nurse Navi. Medi smiled back as Rockman went in with his still active Elec Sword. This time, he engaged Roll into a blade fight of their own. Quick strikes and clangs vibrated in the cyber air. It was only when they came to a struggling stalemate that Rockman seized an opportunity to weaken Roll.

While he attempted to push his Elec Sword forward against Roll's metal machete, he allowed the electrical properties of his element Sword to surge into Roll's blade, mildly electrocuting her for as long as she remained in contact with his Sword. The blue Navi used the effectiveness of metal conducting electricity to his advantage as much as possible, even though he hated attacking his friend like this.

This was the only way now.

"Sonic Boom!"

Blues had leapt in from behind Roll and send an energy wave from his Sword into the ground behind her. Rockman was swift to back off while the resulting backlash of Blues's attack knocked Roll off her feet. It was then that Rockman caught onto Roll and placed her into another hold, preventing her of the use of her arms as she attempted to kick into the air to be free.

"Medi-chan, we have one more shot with this!" Rockman called out. "Healing Pulse!"

While he held onto the resilient pink Navi, he began to drain her of her energy once more in order to calm her down. Medi came in with her hands out as well, using Healing Pulse to stabilize Roll's frantic condition. Roll stopped kicking into the air, having lost a handful of energy from both Rockman and Medi draining her. It was then deemed safe enough for Medi to come in close and place her hands upon her center crest.

"I'm about to begin procedure," Medi announced, her hands glowing upon Roll's crest and accessing her data. "I need your help with this to get this done before she goes berserk again, Rock-kun."

"I'm on it," Rockman replied.

With Roll as tired out as she was from all the destruction she caused, in addition to having her energy drained, Rockman was able to pull her arms behind her and keep them bound with one hand while his other hand was placed on her back to help Medi out in fixing her changed data.

A unique thing was that as they began accessing through Roll's data, all the coding that made her what she was came into view through their medical visors. They scanned through her body aesthetics, preset emotions, and fighting abilities until they found her main personality function. It was certainly large and complex, but Rockman and Medi were able to sort through it until they found something that wasn't supposed to belong in there.

The programming of the injected Yan Love Chip.

"Something's wrong," Medi said. "Finding it seemed too easy."

"I think the moment that we try to interfere and change it, something bad might happen," Rockman offered as a possibility.

"Well, either way, we're going to have to deal with it," Medi concluded, producing a large syringe instrument in one hand. "Now that I've accessed the Yan Love Chip's programming, this healing shot I compiled from her data should take care of that annoying bug once and for all."

The nurse Navi prepared for injecting her cure into Roll. As with most medical injections with sharp needles, she had Rockman hold out one of Roll's arms in order to perform the procedure. With careful aim and firm force, Medi was able to puncture into the arm and proceeded to inject her formulated correction program.

However, in spite of her loss of energy, Roll reacted violently and struggled against the main medic and temp medic. She managed to free her arm from the syringe and before Rockman could bind her again, she sent a backhand against his face to repel him. Medi attempted to salvage her syringe, but was kicked away in the stomach by Roll as a result. The pink Navi was shrieking loudly again as digital sparks crackled about the arm that was injected.

"Is it… taking effect?" Rockman asked, rubbing the sore spot on his face where Roll inadvertently struck.

"_Baka… Baka…_" Roll groaned, breathing heavily as the sparks continued.

"I think so," Medi said, taking a weary stance.

Roll hung her head low, still fatigued from the destruction she had caused on top of battling against Rockman, Medi, and Blues not too long ago. She was gasping for breath before letting out an eerie giggle.

"… _You really don't get it, do you?_"

"What the?!"

Forming fists with both hands, the discharge from her injected arm quickly ceased. Roll tensed up and glared at both Rockman and Medi with delirious, glassy eyes. Any doubt that she was completely insane as of now was just thrown into the recycle bin.

"_You may be able to heal Navis of data loss and darkness corruption, but you don't have the power of rewriting one's data, especially on who they are,_" Roll hissed, crouching menacingly. "_No matter what any of you say, I'm not consumed by darkness… I told you that there's no stopping my love for Rock-kun, but your attempted interference with that horrible shot only triggered my cyber defense programs, which rejected your so-called 'cure' for my love. By the way, your 'healing' wasn't even that great._"

Medi appeared more insulted than worried from Roll's last comment.

"It was kind of a long shot, come to think of it," Rockman commented. "Medi-chan can repair corrupted data, but the Yan Love Chip's programming is not considered corrupted, which was why the cure didn't work as it should've. Weird logic…"

"I've been working on my healing abilities to the point that I am capable of rewriting data of a Navi if necessary, but even if I was more than capable, I would still need the proper authorization to do so as a professional medical Navi," Medi explained. "I should've been more decisive since her Operator gave us all permission to take down Roll if we had to."

"Which means our only hope now is if the Vaccine Chip for Roll is finalized before she destroys everything," Blues continued. "There's no way we can have you two attempt to heal her again now that she's onto us. We've been lucky that none of her attacks had reached anything important in the Ministry of Science."

"Not to mention that we're reaching our limit," Rockman pointed out, holding up his Medi Soul hands. "Even with our healing abilities, they too have their limitations. Medi has been using her powers to make sure we're still alive and active while mine was used to repair her."

Roll charged in before the three of them could continue conversing with her machete. Having stood in front of her, Medi wound up as her main target once again. Of course, she was prepared, along with Rockman, to use another synchronous Medi Capsule attack to confound her. The double explosions were enough to stop her, but not before the pink Navi improvised in blowing away the digital debris with a widespread Broken Heart Flash.

Just then…

"Everyone, the Correction Program for Roll has now been completed!" Yuuichiro's voice echoed within cyberspace. "You need to keep her attention completely focused on you if we're to have a clear shot at her."

"On it!" Rockman, Medi, and Blues answered, splitting off into three directions simultaneously.

Rockman and Medi were at both sides of Roll while Blues occupied her attention at the front. The former two prepared a few more Capsules on while Blues readied energy into his Sword. Not planning to fall for the diversion again, Roll continued her pursuit towards Medi. Nevertheless, the three of them struck before Roll had a chance to counterattack.

"Double Medi Capsule!" Rockman and Medi yelled.

"Sonic Boom!" Blues followed up.

Roll foresaw the incoming Medi Capsules and leapt high up to avoid the explosions. However, Blues ensured that a hit was made by predicting her jump and aiming his shockwave attack a bit higher. The Sonic Boom managed to strike her at the midsection, knocking her out of the air.

The pink Navi rolled on the ground for a bit before coming to a stop on a knee. She was having difficulty standing up now, which was a good sign that she couldn't do as much damage now. Unfortunately, the others were just as worn out as Roll was at this point. They didn't know how much more they can battle before risking deletion, either for her or for them.

* * *

_Real World_

"Here, Meiru-chan," Meijin presented a blue-and-yellow chip to the young red-haired girl. "This Vaccine Chip has the Correction Program that should be able to undo the changes the Yan Love Chip made to Roll's personality. However, this is the only one we have right now, so you must administer it once you feel that Roll has completely left her guard down. Otherwise, if she finds out, she'll attempt to destroy it. It'll take us some time until a new one can be made due to our limited resources on this problem."

"Just leave it to me!" Meiru exclaimed, holding the Vaccine Chip high.

"In any case, we have to prepare for the worst that Roll manages to shake off the Vaccine Chip," Enzan proposed. "Does anyone have any ideas on how to subdue Roll in the event that the Correction Program somehow fails?"

"If the Vaccine Chip doesn't work on her, we'll need to stall her again until a new and better one can be made," Netto suggested.

"We're running out of time," Enzan pointed out. "Our Navis won't last much longer if this keeps up. Medi is reaching her limit on healing, and even with Medi Soul, Rockman's abilities on healing aren't as strong as hers."

"We'll all have to plug them out at this rate!" Jasmine cried.

"But then, nothing will stop Roll from destroying the Ministry of Science databanks," Meiru said.

"Geez, this is troublesome," Netto groaned, all four young Operators becoming frustrated over their lack of options.

"Netto-kun!" Rockman's voice echoed from his PET.

"Hm? Rockman, what's wrong?" Netto asked.

"If it's true that we're all running out of options and the Vaccine Chip does fail to repair Roll, then I'll be the sacrifice to save her," Rockman stated.

Everyone within the room froze in horrified silence at the blue Navi's decided plan. Meiru, especially, appeared distressed. Even Enzan couldn't help but feel astonished and sympathetic for his friendly rival and his Navi. However, Meijin appeared to be preoccupied more than overwhelmed by Rockman's declaration.

"Rockman, you can't be serious!" Netto shouted. "We'll find another way! I promise!"

"Please, you don't have to do this for Roll!" Meiru pleaded, remorse and guilt eating her up from within. "Delete her if necessary! This is all my fault for allowing her to go through with taking the Mad Love Chip anyway!"

"I'm sorry, but this is how I work," Rockman responded. "The lives of my friends go above everything else, including my own. At least if Roll-chan does this, she'll be free from the Yan Love Chip for good. It'll _switch out_ to her old personality programming once more."

"Rockman…" Netto sighed, knowing that trying to convince him now would be pointless. He knew how adamant his Navi could be on some things, recalling the time where using a Dark Chip was their only option to survive against Shademan, only for Enzan and Blues to take the fall instead of them.

"Rockman, are you sure about going through with this?" Meijin finally spoke up, eliciting everyone's attention on him now. Enzan, in particular, noticed how different his mood was compared with everyone else's in the room concerning Rockman's decided fate. "We haven't even finished−."

"It's now or never, Meijin-san," Rockman replied, cutting him off.

"I see," Meijin nodded, searching for something in his coat pocket.

"What's going on?" Netto asked, getting the feeling that something was up between Rockman and Meijin. The latter, however, handed him a chip marked with a large blue question mark in a green circle and blue circle outline. "What's this?"

"Netto-kun, I'm afraid I can't explain at this time, but use it only if the Vaccine Chip fails and as Roll is about to delete Rockman," Meijin requested. "I can't say much on this topic, so trust me on this. If anything, it's the Mystery Chip."

"I'm confused on what's going on, but alright," Netto relented, keeping the Mystery Chip on standby. "I'm guessing it'll save both Rockman and Roll somehow?"

"I'll say this, that this chip hasn't been tested enough to prove fully functional, so this will be its first use," Meijin explained. "I can't say what it'll do exactly, but if it works, it might just do as you said. However, you have to slot in at the critical moment that Roll deletes Rockman."

"This is a very big gamble we're putting on a chip that we don't even know what it does or if it'll even work," Netto commented. "And does it really have to come to risking deletion in order to use this chip?"

"Meijin, is this one of your more 'personal projects'?" Yuiichiro inquired. "I hate to ask this, but do you even have authorization to do such a thing, and behind my back?"

"I already had this cleared with the Net Police before carrying it out and had a few select scientists that promised secrecy help me on it," Meijin admitted. "However, I can't risk this by sharing more of what's going on."

"What do you mean?" Jasmine asked.

"Let's wait to see the Vaccine Chip in action first, if it'll hopefully be enough to save Roll."

* * *

**Yeah, so that last scenario may be something just pulled out of my butt or something of the sort, but just as Meijin-san said, you'll have to wait and see what's happening. And of course, everything will be explained at the end.**

**Please review!**


	8. Great Sacrifice

**Most of us saw this coming. Well, this is one of the last chapters left, plus an epilogue.**

* * *

_Cyber World_

Though the atmosphere right now was anything but silent, the rising emotions and tense mood was enough to leave everyone speechless. In Roll's case, though, she didn't care about anything at the moment aside from deleting Rockman and the other Navis in her way to him.

Medi clasped her hands up in front of her chest, praying that what she heard from Rockman recently would not come to pass. Blues looked impassive and formulated about something though his databanks.

"Rock-kun, I know you want to save Roll and all, but please reconsider our remaining options," Medi pleaded. "The Vaccine Chip for her is now complete. I'm confident that it should bring her back to normal."

"Let's hope that would be the case," Rockman replied, glancing at the pink Navi's direction. "But if we were unable to get the Yan Love Chip programming out of her, then I have my doubts about the Vaccine Chip working in one shot. She managed to resist our combined efforts, so we might not have much of a choice now."

"Then let me be the sacrifice! You're of greater value than I am!"

"No, Roll-chan is my friend, so _I_ must be the one to fix this and save her. Besides, all of us are pretty tired out and weakened from all this fighting. If Roll-chan sneaks in any shots, we'll all be deleted regardless. Better I go than all of us."

"Rockman, you were already deleted once by Pharoahman and we were lucky to be able to get you back," Blues spoke up. "Are you that willing to risk your life to bring Roll back?"

"I have a plan that does rely on gambling my life, even though I've done it many times in the past," Rockman explained. "This time, however, I might have to be deleted in order to stop her."

"No!" Medi cried out, nearly on the verge of tears. "I don't want to hear about this any longer! Please stop talking like that! You have so much to live for, Rock-kun!"

"So do the rest of you," Rockman said. "Medi-chan, you once belonged to a friend of Jasmine's and promised to help her become a great healer so that she can protect the health of her friends. And Blues, you and Enzan are a powerful team that can handle many Net Savior cases."

"Not without your help, my friend," Blues admitted. "If it means anything, you've actually become more powerful than I have right now… but don't expect that to last because I will become stronger. And I need you around in order to prove it."

"Heh, I look forward to it once we get out of this mess," Rockman replied, grinning back. "Netto-kun and I may not be official battlers, but we're happy to take on any challenge."

"Boys, how about we focus on the 'challenge' at hand?" Medi suggested, indicating to where Roll was now. It was Rockman and Blues's turn to look away nonchalantly.

The demented pink Navi unleashed a barrage of Broken Heart Flashes towards each one of them. All three struck back with their current basic attacks, only for another wave to take the place of the destroyed ones before them.

"Move!" Blues commanded.

Rockman and Medi were quick to respond in escaping. The red Navi, however, stayed behind and sent off several Sonic Boom swipes to counter Roll's attacks. Roll let off a hollow giggle before unleashing another barrage. Once again, Blues fended off one wave while Rockman and Medi countered the other waves of attacks with their far-distance Medi Capsules.

"We have to catch Roll completely off guard in order to use the Vaccine Chip properly," Netto's voice advised.

"She's already weakened enough, so we need to blindside her," Medi suggested.

"Leave it to us, Netto-kun!" Rockman called out.

Both he and Medi went into formation around Roll as she was preoccupied on taking down Blues. The pink Navi barely noticed the duo surrounding her while she continued sending wave after wave of Broken Heart Flashes on Blues that she was unable to do anything else. It was there that Rockman and Medi used a simple, yet very effective ploy.

"Brilliant Chemical Flash!"

Rockman and Medi charged a handful amount of energy into their capsules before tossing them up in the air over Roll. Upon collision with each other, the bright energy released was blinding enough for Roll to cease her attack, as well as force Blues to back off. Roll was completely defenseless at this point.

"Now! Vaccine Chip, slot-in!"

Meiru seized the opportunity that the other Navis had given her and inserted the Vaccine Chip into her PET. In the cyber world, it resembled as a small cannon that floated behind the pink Navi overhead, which closely resembled the one used on Dark Blues prior to his liberation from the Dark Chip. The Vaccine Cannon aimed its head on the center of Roll's back while the target was still trying to recover from her temporary blindness.

_*BOOM!*_

The Vaccine Cannon fired a blast that contained the miniature form of its chip at the head right into Roll. Its energy seized control over her body and she froze in place, unable to counterattack. Digital hearts appeared to be emanating out of her at a very slow pace.

"We got her!" Rockman and Medi exclaimed.

"Don't celebrate just yet," Blues warned, indicating something that seemed off. "Look again. The Vaccine Chip should have a stronger effect on her, but there doesn't seem to be much purification happening."

"I was afraid of this," Meijin's voice said. "Either Roll's system had been able to create antibodies since Medi and Rockman's attempt at repairing her or the Yan Love Chip's programming has completely bonded into her normal coding, basically rendering the Correction Program we made for this Vaccine Chip useless."

All three Navis watched Roll easily shrug off the shocking effects of the Vaccine Chip, resuming her glassy, lifeless stare towards her Rockman while rearming herself with her bloody machete. Without even breaking her stare on them, she leapt back to where she determined the Vaccine Cannon was and destroyed it with a quick slash.

"This can't be," Rockman muttered in disbelief.

"The Vaccine Chip failed?!" Medi cried out.

* * *

_Real World_

"We weren't prepared for something like this as the Yan Love Chip project was shut down many years ago," Yuuichiro explained. "And back then, most Navis didn't have the advanced personality programming all of you have built in now."

"Now what are we supposed to do?" Meiru questioned apprehensively. "If neither the Vaccine Chip nor the healing powers of Medi and Rockman were able to fix Roll, then how will we save her?"

"We're left with one option," Rockman's voice spoke out from his PET.

Netto looked down gravely into the PET screen, watching Rockman and the others deal with Roll before shifting his attention to the Mystery Chip that Meijin gave him only a few minutes ago. Meiru, Jasmine, and Enzan observed somberly, each knowing what Netto's next plan was going to be.

"Are you really going to go through with this, Netto?" Jasmine asked.

"It's not like we have much of a choice now," Netto replied. "The final moment has come. A lot will ride on this if we can save Roll or not."

"Netto, you don't have to do this," Meiru pleaded, feeling grief welling up greatly inside her.

"Rockman is not going to back down and neither will I," Netto declared with a resolute smile.

"Baka, how can you still smile after knowing what you two are going to do, just for Roll? And for me?!" Meiru cried, bordering on the verge of tears once more.

"Well, I'm certainly not going to let Medi take the fall," Netto added, touching the Choina girl's heart. "Better us than them."

"You've been strong and reliable, my friend," Enzan said. "Yours and Rockman's sacrifices in maintaining peace in the Internet won't be forgotten."

"We're not done just yet," Netto announced, holding up the Mystery Chip. "According to Meijin-san, I have to slot in right as Rockman gets attacked."

"There's no need for formalities," Meijin interrupted. "And the attack has to be the ending blow that deletes him. After all, it's Roll's intent to do so and one of the remaining ways for the Yan Love Chip to end its control over her."

"Right… I seriously was hoping that it would not be the case," Netto muttered to the side.

"Netto-kun, before we do this, please take Medi Soul in first," Rockman requested.

"Why?"

"It would be best if I took care of this as myself."

"… Okay then."

Netto took out a spare chip to download the newest Soul Unison Rockman gained, Medi Soul. Medi's flowerlike crest appeared on the chip. Back at the cyber world, Rockman reverted back to his normal blue bomber form once again.

"Rock-kun, you can't do this," Medi pleaded one last time. "At least take me with you."

"That would be unnecessary, which was why I sent Medi Soul to Netto-kun in the first place," Rockman replied, turning to face Roll. "I'm facing her as myself now. I'm really sorry, Medi-chan, but this is the only way to save Roll-chan now."

"Oh…"

Blues stepped in her way to make sure she didn't foolishly go along with Rockman, looking on with a somber expression of his own. He and Rockman shared a brief, meaningful stare before culminating with understanding nods from each other.

"Do what you think is right," Blue said.

"You won't see anything less from me," Rockman answered.

With their final sentiments shared and taken care of, the blue Navi went to confront Roll. He didn't bother arming himself with his Buster as his final plan with Meijin's chip would determine if he would truly be gone or not and subsequently if Roll could break free from the Yan Love Chip.

"Roll-chan, let's settle this!" Rockman declared, holding his arms wide apart to the side as an inviting, defenseless display. "Leave the others out of this and take your vengeance on me!"

"_Hee hee… Anything for Rock-kun~!_" Roll hissed darkly, brandishing her machete. "_But only if you give me one thing in return…_"

"… And that is?" Rockman gulped.

Roll launched herself forward with quite a leap that even Blues and Medi were surprised with her sudden mobility despite being as exhausted as they all were at this stage.

"_Your head~!_"

Rockman stood as a rock, not breaking out of his stance for even a moment. He had no intention of escaping, but taking responsibility for this whole mess. Blues and Medi begrudgingly watched from the sidelines, unable to aid the blue Navi. Back in the real world, Netto watched in standby with the Mystery Chip on hand while everyone else in the room was practically holding their breath.

"Netto-kun, now!" Rockman's voice echoed.

"Mystery Chip, slot-in!"

As she reached Rockman, the first action Roll took against him was placing a hand on his crest and gripping it harshly at the edges. Rockman became alarmingly worried, thinking that Roll was on to him and would not delete him right as Netto slotted in, just to void the effects of Meijin's Mystery Chip. However, he couldn't think about anything else as Roll swiftly swiped her machete horizontally through his neck to effectively behead him, all while using his own crest as a hold.

With warped manic glee, Roll overdid her bloody execution and also tore out Rockman's core crest. Medi could no longer bear to watch and began openly weeping behind the distraught Blues. Pushing the disintegrating body aside, Roll caught the head of the one she 'loved' to the point of deletion in her arms while holding his mangled crest in her other hand.

"_You're mine forever, Rock-k−AYH!_"

Roll fell to her knees as though she was struck by something while letting out a painful scream. Digital energy sparked out of her back while what appeared to be black digital hearts were emerging at a huge mass in a rapid rate. Compared to the first failed attempt of the Vaccine Chip where little was happening to fix Roll, it was obvious now that the Yan Love Chip had accomplished what it wanted Roll to do and was now leaving her behind hopefully for good.

Blues and Medi watched the remaining storm of digital hearts leave Roll's body, also noticing the bloody machete becoming disengaged and restoring her right hand. They knew for sure that she was back to normal, but at a very great sacrifice.

* * *

_Real World_

The main room of the Ministry of Science was deadly silent. No one said a word for what Netto had to go through for the sake of one Navi, nor was anyone able to say anything. Meiru and Jasmine held back sobs for the sake of giving their heroic friend some respected silence while holding on to each other for comfort. Enzan looked away to hide any tears threatening to fall down his face.

As for Netto, he continued looking at his PET. Meijin came over to him and placed a firm hand on his shoulder.

As the young boy looked up, he received a reassuring smile from the scientist.

* * *

_Cyber World_

Roll caught her breath after experiencing a painful sensation of something big tearing out of her back in order to escape. Soon after, she regained her senses and looked around to where she was.

"…What happened? W-Where am… I?" Roll mumbled. "Wait… this is the Ministry of Science. How did I…?"

Her memory started to come back as a look of horrified realization marked her lovely face. One by one, horrible scenes that she took part of since taking in the Love Love Chip were playing back in her databanks as some sort of horror movie.

Her increased obsession to win Rockman from Medi…

Thoughts of disposing the nurse Navi and any other perceived competition for him…

Her first step in the path of destruction at Yuugi Paati…

Chasing after Rockman, Medi, and Blues while destroying parts and deleting Navis of Net City along the way…

The brutal fight she had with all three…

Beheading Rockman…

"No…!" Roll gasped, forcing herself to look down to her shaking arms.

It was true. In her arms laid the blue Navi's severed head, complete with the frozen disturbed expression before she sliced it clean off. Also in her hand, she discovered his crest slightly dented by the grip of her fingers. She wanted to throw up on the spot, but was too perturbed by her actions to even do so. Instead, she settled for a rain of tears falling out of her traumatized green eyes as she held her spoils close.

"… What have I done…?" Roll whispered shakily before facing skyward. "WHAT HAVE I DONE!"

Medi nearly collapsed on her knees before Blues caught her. She also wound up crying while he attempted to comfort her. This grieving moment didn't last long as two Net Police Navis had plugged in.

"Roll, by orders of the Net Police, you are under arrest for the destruction of Net City as well as the slaughter of several Navis," one of them announced.

* * *

_Real World_

Commisioner Kifune Seishin and Manabe Rei of the Net Police had entered the Ministry of Science, having explained what Roll had gotten herself into regardless of being under the influence of a corrupt chip.

"We have to take her in as part of upholding the law, no exceptions," Kifune concluded.

"However, since this is her first offense, she will be given a light sentence," Manabe added. "She'll have to be kept under surveillance for a month to make sure the effects of that chip are no longer in her. If tests that the chip left anything behind her prove negative, then she will be let out early, but be kept under probation for a certain time before being cleared off."

"Fair enough," Meiru agreed. "It's the least we can do after all this mess we caused."

* * *

_Cyber World_

Roll had allowed herself to be restrained without any sort of struggle. After everything she had done, she was still surprised on how merciful everyone else had been treating her. As far as she was concerned, deletion was her only hope to escape the unending sorrow she had placed herself under as a result of deleting the one she felt she really loved. But then again, if she did love him, why did she delete him?

Medi and Blues watched as the Net Police was about to leave with Roll to formally give her sentence.

"Wait!" a voice called out.

Blues, Medi, and Roll looked to where the voice came from.

* * *

**Any of you expected this to happen? I apologize again if this felt rushed or incomplete, but everything will be cleared up the next chapter.**

**Please review.**


	9. True Love

**No sense in hiding the fact that this is the final chapter, not including the epilogue, which will come in at… six days from now. If you readers have noticed, I've been updating every six days except from during the beginning. This was fun and interesting to write, but I'll let the story speak for itself. Thank you all!**

* * *

"Wait!"

Blues, Medi, Roll, and even the Police Navis looked to where the voice had originated from. The former three especially couldn't believe their optical senses as the one who spoke was logging in and integrating back into full form.

"No way…" Blues gasped.

"This has to be a trick," Medi remarked.

"… Rock… man," Roll whispered, receiving the stimulus of having a lump in her throat, unable to speak further.

The reactions in the real world were no different except for two certain individuals. Meijin appeared triumphant while Netto gave a casual look to his PET screen.

"What's up… Rockman?" Netto asked.

"What?! You knew about this, but didn't even telling us?!" Meiru demanded, offended by how relaxed her childhood friend was. "We were worried _sick_ for you, Netto!"

"Well, something, I don't know what though, told me I had to play along," Netto quickly explained as Meiru grabbed the collar of his orange vest with both hands. "Meiru-chan, I'm sorry!"

"Don't you know better than to mess with a girl's feelings like that?! Baka! Baka!"

"Wait! I−!"

While Meiru continued to irately shake down and strangle Netto, Enzan confronted Meijin and Yuuichiro about Rockman's miraculous survival. He had immediately narrowed the factor that saved the Navi through that Mystery Chip the brown-haired boy received only several minutes ago now.

"What I want to know was how your chip accomplished this," Enzan said. "Just what happened before Rockman was 'deleted' before our eyes?"

"I was wondering when someone was going to ask this," Meijin chuckled. "The thing is that the whole concept was all Rockman's idea in the first place."

"It was?" Jasmine, accompanied by Netto and Meiru in a temporary pause of their squabble, asked simultaneously.

"It was, rather from one of his battles against a certain Navi was the inspiration," Meijin explained. "The Mystery Chip shouldn't be a mystery at this point now that it has been used. Netto-kun, if you please?"

Freeing himself from Meiru's grip, Netto ejected the Mystery Chip, which no longer had its titular question mark image, but rather the image of two of the same Navi. A familiar ninja-themed Navi, to be exact.

"It has a picture of Shadowman?" Meiru pointed out aloud.

"More like Shadowman with a kawarimi, a substitution clone it looks like," Netto clarified through closer inspection.

"I like to call this one the 'Living Substitution Chip,' if you kids don't mind," Meijin intervened. "From one of his last battles against Shadowman, Rockman came to me at one point sharing how powerful his abilities were, from creating shadow clones to kawarimis while escaping harm. Sadly, he never got Shadow Soul at their past encounters, so I couldn't really study deep into this, which was why I wanted to make my own variation of Shadowman's abilities for future emergencies and threats."

"So, this chip basically had Roll destroy a Rockman kawarimi?" Netto surmised.

"Eh… in a way," Meijin muttered, embarrassed on how quickly his complex project was easily broken down and summarized.

"I have no doubt creating something like this was difficult," Yuuichiro said.

"But what makes this different from any other substitution?" Meiru inquired.

"The truth was if Roll, while still under the Yan Love Chip, had realized that the Rockman she destroyed was a fake, then the programming wouldn't have registered her target being eliminated and she would have still continued her rampage," Meijin added.

"Which was why you wanted Netto to use the chip right as Roll was about to delete Rockman, because at that moment, she and the Yan Love Chip would believe that they were actually attacking him and thus complete its mad function," Enzan continued. "That's actually ingenious."

"Let's just say that I learned how to play around with space and time in the cyber world because that chip in a nutshell was supposed to warp Rockman into a 'safe pocket dimension' for a temporary amount of time while a realistic, lifelike kawarimi doll took his place," Meijin explained. "However, this was actually the first time the Living Substitution Chip was ever used. A lot was definitely riding on the success of this chip completing its function."

"It could've failed, or worse," Yuuichiro pointed out. "It could've sent Rockman to somewhere else instead of your 'pocket dimension' or even destroyed him."

"Oh, geez, if it's one thing being a test subject for you guys, it's another," Netto sighed.

* * *

_Cyber World_

Rockman's head was held up in a pair of hands, or rather the head of a lifelike doll of the blue Navi. Medi and Blues had gathered around, having listened in to all the explanations and clarifications shared back at the real world where their Operators were.

"So Roll actually severed a kawarimi's head?" Medi asked.

"That's right, Medi-chan," Rockman replied, placing a hand on his doll's head. "This was a side project I worked along with Meijin-san in case we ever faced huge threats like the Cyber Beasts or Cache, though this was supposed to be a last resort thing."

"There's no shame in doing what you have to do to ensure the survival of your friends or for the greater good," Blues said. "It really did look like you were deleted, just so it would bring Roll back to normal."

"I felt it was time to try it out," Rockman shared with a quick shrug. "Of course, to ensure that Roll-chan believed that she actually deleted me, no one else had to know about this."

"Otherwise… there would've been a chance that I would've been tipped off… and I would have still continued on with those awful crimes," Roll admitted, looking away forlornly. "I deserve to be locked away for good…"

"Roll-chan, it wasn't your fault," Rockman reasoned. "That Mad Love Chip made you do all those horrible things."

"You don't understand! I deliberately took it in hopes that I could beat Medi, but I only made things worse not only for you but for me!" Roll cried out, held back by the Police Navi when she attempted to speak out to Rockman.

"I can't really blame you though, speaking from girl Navi to girl Navi," Medi intervened. "I'd probably wind up doing the same thing if I was _that_ obsessed with winning." She surreptitiously looked back at Rockman before resuming a serious glance towards the pink Navi. "But still, that doesn't excuse your recklessness or actions towards us."

"I know," Roll sighed.

"What's done is done now, so the most we can do now is clean up the mess," Rockman surmised.

"Hey, Rockman?" Roll asked, appearing hesitant.

"What's up, Roll-chan?"

"Just so you know, while I've now come to accept that you're with Medi doesn't mean I'm about to give up yet," Roll announced. "Once I'm released from my sentence, I will do this fair and square, as myself with no external help."

"That's pretty sporting of you," Medi commented, holding onto Rockman's arm closely. "I accept your challenge."

"Just one last thing, though. Would you mind at least visiting me once per day until my release? I know Meiru-chan will be by my side for the month, but it'd be really nice if you did see me even for a minute. You already have Medi for the rest of the week, so…"

"I don't mind at all, Roll-chan," Rockman said. "You should be out fairly soon since the Yan Love Chip should be out of your system completely. They're just going to monitor and scan your systems to make sure you're operating as you should be, so don't worry too much about it. Just be on your best behavior. I hope you don't mind, Medi-chan."

"I guess it's the least she deserves, and I know this will make you happy to make sure your friends are doing well, Rock-kun," Medi answered.

With a confirming nod from Roll, the Police Navis escorted her out of the Ministry of Science to await further instruction from Kifune and Manabe. Rockman, Medi, and Blues watched her off before agreeing to return to their respective PETs to recover from this ordeal, plugging out with minimal damage done to the overall cyber environment.

_Roll is finally growing up, as far as a Navi would mentally develop anyway,_ Meiru thought after observing their conversation before turning to Netto. _I should take care of some things too._

"Meiru-chan, what's on your mind?" Netto asked upon noticing Meiru's pensive look.

"Let's step out now first," Meiru suggested. "This is between you and me. Jasmine, you can resume your time with Netto after, if that's okay."

"Not a problem," Jasmine chimed.

"I suppose with the current crisis now averted, I'll be on my way," Enzan passed as his final comments before taking his leave as well.

Now outside of the Ministry of Science, Netto and Meiru were at a secluded spot while Jasmine waited beyond earshot distance. Yuuichiro and Meijin had escorted the youth out and returned back into the lab while Enzan went on his way back to the IPC building.

"Now Netto… I'm not sure how to start considering how hectic this day turned out," Meiru began nervously, sporting a mild blush.

"Hey, Roll will be just fine now that she's back to her normal self," Netto reassured.

"Aside from that, well… after seeing the great lengths Roll would go for Rockman, it made me think about some things," Meiru continued, still having trouble maintaining eye contact with her crush. "I want to know first how things are going between you and Jasmine."

"Oh, we're pretty close friends, and it's nice she had time to come here and visit me," Netto replied nonchalantly.

"No! I mean…"

Meiru still struggled to spit out her real intention, but Netto noticed how uncomfortable she was and went to her. Holding her head up with one hand under her chin and a comforting hand on her shoulder, he helped her establish firm eye contact. By then, the redness in Meiru's cheeks were spreading to the rest of her face and she looked like she was about to panic.

"Meiru-chan, I think that you're overthinking this," Netto said warmly. "We're all still young, having fun, and enjoying life. I know that I still want to enjoy the perks of being a kid since I'm practically already employed in a dangerous profession as a Net Savior. Even then, we still have the rest of our lives to live out. I know I'll have to grow up eventually and start trying out new things, probably things you're already interested in since you're more mature than I am, but until then, I'll keep on having fun with all my friends. That includes you, Jasmine, Dekao, Yaito, Tohru, Chisao, Shuuko-san, and even Enzan and everyone I've met around the world."

Meiru merely looked at him in wonderment on that surprisingly profound statement. She laughed to herself, realizing how much she worked herself up over minor misunderstandings and insecurities. Perhaps she did expect too much out of Netto because of her higher maturity level, but she couldn't help it. She was the one with the 'mature' feelings, as he had put it, while Netto opted to be a kid and enjoy the pleasures of youth while he still can. She couldn't blame him, really.

"You're right," Meiru finally spoke with a light smile. "We do have the rest of our lives to think about these things."

"See? Come on now," Netto urged. "Jasmine won't be here any longer. We've got the rest of the day to play and eat."

As he went off to let her know that their plans together for the rest of the day would resume, Meiru simply looked on and smiled in contentment for a moment before walking after him. All that mattered to her at this point was that Netto was being himself and was happy, Rockman was safe, and there were no more threats targeting the Internet or the real world at this time.

Maybe this was really love she felt by letting him go as he pleased to be happy.

If this was the case, perhaps Roll had finally understood what it meant as well.

Nonetheless, Meiru made the decision to stay by Netto's side and support him in his endeavors. With the rest of their lives ahead, she had plenty of time to wait 'to be' with him.

* * *

**As you all have read, I really couldn't bring myself in killing off Rockman for good, so I had that chip basically pull off a major miracle. Well, this is the end of this story until I conclude with the epilogue. **

**Thanks for reading! And don't forget to review!**


	10. Epilogue

**This is it. Someone messaged me, asking if I would do a sequel. While my interests quickly change and chances of that actually happening are pretty slim to none, this epilogue should leave things up to interpretation. It can be taken serious or not. Right now, I'm not going to count on a sequel happening, but you never know…**

* * *

**_Epilogue_**

The week had nearly come to its close. Speaking of such, the time Jasmine and Medi in their brief vacation in Japan has come to its end as well. By the end of the day, they would be flying back to Choina, bringing fresh memories spent with their friends, Netto and Rockman, as well as other exciting experiences with them home.

"Roll, you've got visitors."

Right as Meiru had finished her annoucement, Rockman and Medi had plugged in and appeared before her aforementioned Navi. It was a depressing sight at first to see the once cheerful and lively pink Navi rendered into constant stasis and forced sleep. She hovered before them in her elliptical containment unit, arms and legs spread out.

Roll couldn't hear or see them, but entrusted that Meiru would let them know the times and dates, including the durations, when Rockman visited her.

"This still seems a bit too much," Medi commented, sounding a bit sorrowful as she wrapped her arms around Rockman's arm. "I know she wanted you to visit her every day and all, but she can't even be active to experience it."

"The Net Police is still wary about the Yan Love Chip leaving a special 'present' for Roll-chan before it left her," Rockman explained. "I don't approve of this either, but there's nothing we can do until all the tests come up negative, which they should. She was herself again when she thought she deleted me."

"Even though it's for the best at a certain standpoint, still…"

"Don't worry about it," Meiru's voice spoke. "Considering how her tests have been going so far, they're considering letting her out halfway the month for good behavior. I'll let her know that you guys have been visiting when she's allowed to be active."

"Roll must be really lucky to have you, Meiru," Medi said. "I'm sorry that there isn't much that we can do for her."

"Thanks, Medi and Rockman," Meiru replied, smiling from her seat. "Please say 'hi' to Netto and Jasmine for me and for her to have a safe trip back to Choina tonight."

"Will do! It's too bad we can't stay any longer. I heard that Japan might hold a fall festival at the end of the month, at least something along those lines. Choina is a bit more conservative in celebrating events, so we don't really have a lot of fun things to do."

"Oh, yeah, that's right… I almost forgot!"

"In the real world, various stands of games and food are set up in the streets while paper lanterns are set up in the air," Rockman surmised. "There's also people dressed in traditional robes and such that dance. I haven't much experience with these things since I've always been out with Netto-kun. And he didn't really understand much of it, so I got careless too and didn't really look into it as much as I should've."

"You can leave that to me, Rockman," Meiru declared. "I'll make sure he understands the beauty and cultural value of festivals like these."

"You're planning on taking him, aren't you," Rockman said factly, to which Meiru couldn't help but blush. It was a good thing she was alone and couldn't be seen by Rockman or Medi right now.

"Well, what about you? What are you going to do about it?"

"Uhh…"

"Hey, Rock-kun, can I take you?" Medi quickly spoke up.

"But you'll be all the way in Choina," Rockman pointed out. "Are you sure it'd be okay for you and Jasmine to travel back here so quickly at the end of the month?"

"It sounds a lot of fun, especially those paper lanterns floating in the sky," Medi explained enthusiastically. "I know Jasmine would love to see those, as would I with you if Net City is having one there. We'll just have to clear up our schedule for that day and work hard beforehand."

"Well, I guess that's settled," Rockman concluded, smiling.

"But Rockman, what about Roll once she gets out?" Meiru pointed out.

"Oh, I guess she can join us as well," Rockman said, eliciting a worried expression from the nurse Navi. "We can invite more friends to join us and have fun."

"Well, I suppose…" Medi muttered, deciding that at least if she wasn't going to be alone with Rockman, then she wouldn't also be alone with Roll as well. The idea of their time together as a group activity did appeal to her better as it would also give her a chance to know Rockman's friends better.

"Then, it's settled!" Meiru exclaimed, writing down notes on a spare notepad, which also had all the plugin times Rockman had in visiting Roll.

"Rock-kun, I think it's time for us to get going," Medi pointed out, slip her right hand into his left and intertwined their fingers together. "We still have this and that to do before Jasmine and I fly home."

"Got it, Medi-chan," Rockman responded. "I'll be back tomorrow around same time, probably along with Netto-kun."

"That's fine," Meiru said. "Thanks!"

With that final exchange taken cared off, Rockman and Medi plugged out. Meiru looked at her PET screen before looking at the stasis capsule she sat next to that had the holographic projection of her Navi. Just as she appeared in the cyber world, Roll was shown offline. It was similar to the one that contained Dark Rockman, who posed as the real Rockman after causing trouble and nearly deleting his friends before being discovered as the aftereffect of Shademan's dark infection turned into a live Darkloid by Dr. Regal.

Meiru gave a heavy sigh before placing her notepad on her seat and went to the bathroom.

Roll floated lifelessly inside her containment unit in the cyber world.

Her casted shadow lying behind her, which had taken her full shape, stared up with the appearance of a cyber light fixture orb that happened to be hovering over its head, as though it was an eye.

* * *

_**The End?**_


End file.
